The Story of Wind Rider: Book 2 - The Real Beginning
by RainbowDashFanClub
Summary: Wind Rider and Wave Pool's two twin foals seem to lead normal lives, right? Wrong. Follow the adventures of the two fillies as they embark on their own, equally astonishing adventure in a battle against a villain they thought long defeated: Nightmare Moon.
1. Twin Bodies, Twin Minds

"And then… and then the prince said, 'Oh no! Somepony, rescue me!' and the valiant mare galloped across the grounds of the castle to the tower where the handsome prince was being held captive!" announced Sun Rider with great dramatics, taking her doll of the mare in armor and moving it across the play set. "And there was a great, fire breathing dragon!" said Moon Pool, adding more suspense to their pretend as she took a gigantic dragon doll out of the closet, "ROAR!" "But the mare, who has a cutie mark in sword fighting, uses her brilliant tactics and well-trained wings to pierce the dragon's shiny scales and kill the dragon, saving the prince from his ivory-walled imprisonment!" exclaimed Sun, flapping the doll's wings and giving her a sword, which clipped into her mouth. She pretend-sliced a spot on the dragon's chest, and Moon Pool stopped holding the dragon upright and it fell onto the castle, destroying it because it was made of building blocks. "And they fly away into the sunset, the mare having saved her prince from the fiery keep where he had been condemned!" said Sun. "Uh… Sun?" asked Moon Pool shyly, "What does condemned mean?" "It means…" started Sun, looking for a way to say it. "It means 'to sentence somepony to a particular punishment'!" shouted Wind Rider up the stairs to her foals. "Thanks mama!" shouted Moon Pool, despite their age of nearly 13 years she still had a high-pitched, shy voice.

Suddenly they heard the door creak. "Moon Pool, honey," tapped Wave Pool, "Get ready for skating!" "Okay, mommy!" tapped Moon. She rushed over to get her skating dress out of her closet, she adored wearing it. It was blue with teal sequins on it in a spiral pattern; before that she got on her tights and afterwards put on her sneakers. "I'm ready, mommy!" tapped Moon. "Okay, sweetie. Let's get going, we don't want to miss your 2:00 skating practice!" Moon looked over at the clock, it was noon. Then they rushed out the door.

"Mama!" shouted Sun Rider down the stairs, grabbing her tennis racket and balls, "Let's go to the court now!" "Okay, sweetie, I'll be right there," said Wind, "Do you have your racket?" "Yes." "Your tennis balls?" "Yes." "Your sneakers?" "I'm getting them on right now!" "Great. Let's go!"

Wind Rider grabbed her racket and got on her sneakers, and she walked out the door. Not a mile away, there was a small tennis court where they practiced. Although Wind couldn't see, she could hear where the ball was. Sun would shout out when she served the ball, and they would play it out.

They arrived at the tennis court, and they took their usual sides. "Go!" shouted Sun as she tossed the ball in the air with her hoof and hit it hard with her racket, which she held in her mouth. Her mother hit it back, and this continued for maybe five minutes until one or the other didn't get to the ball on time. This was a great place for Sun to practice her moves, and for Wind to hear her daughter play and play with her. "Want me to take the machine out of storage so you can keep practicing? I'm tired," Wind told Sun. "Okay, mama!" shouted Sun across the court, and Wind got the machine and dumped a crate of balls into the hopper. "Ready?" she shouted across the court to Sun, who said, "Yeah!" Wind pressed the power button, and the machine started serving balls across the net and to Sun. Wind sat in a corner, she heard Sun doing various moves. "What are you doing?" Wind asked. "I'm doing front and back passes, mama. I also perfected my spin technique, listen to this."

Wind listened as her daughter switched the machine off, turned it to serve really high over her head, switched it on again, and flew quickly back over. It served a single shot, she ignored the first one. Then it served another, she twirled up and hit it while she was twirling, then she stopped, looked where the ball landed, pumped a hoof that it would've scored, and landed. "Great job, Sun!" said Wind. "Thanks, mama!" she said back. "You're going to kick flank at Nationals this weekend!" Wind said with a smile. "I know! I'm the best tennis player in all of Fillydelphia, soon to be best tennis player in all of Equestria!" bragged Sun, and rightfully so.

"Don't brag so much, Sun," Wind warned her, "You'll make your competition jealous. Do what I do: tell them 'good luck' before the event, then beat them and know that, even with good luck, they can't be nearly as good as you." Putting a huge grin on her face at the idea of that, Sun said, "Good idea, mama. Now, want to hear my last winning trick that'll beat even the unicorns?" "Sure, Sun!" exclaimed Wind, "I'm listening!" She went over and hit a button that Wind didn't recognize, and then she walked over and hovered. She built up speed, flying in a square. Then she flew in a cube, covering every possible inch of space in every direction on her side of the court. It was then that the machine fired. It shot a hail merry of balls everywhere, at least a cart-full, all at once. But with her racket flinging in every direction, Sun hit every single ball into the scoring zone of the other side. "Wow, Sun! There's no way anypony could beat you with that move!" "I know!" said Sun, grinning smugly.

Moon Pool laced up her skates to go out for her 2:00 practice. Wave sat in her usual spot in the stands. There was never anypony on the ice for these sessions; most ponies were in school around now. But since their parents taught Moon and Sun, Moon got to skate on this one. Once she got on, Moon warmed up her skating moves. She got ready for her routine, and then signed for Wave to fly over and turn on her CD music. Wave nodded, and she flew over to the other end of the ice rink. She put the CD in the rink's music player and hit the play button. Then Wave watched her routine. The music was a song called 'Heart of Courage'; it was cut by Moon down to 2 minutes, 30 seconds for her short program. In the middle of her program, though, Moon heard the blades of somepony else on the ice.

After she finished her program, Moon looked over to the other skater. She was a unicorn, her cutie mark was a horn crossed with a skate. She stroked around the outside of the ice, and instead of doing a simple jump to start out with, she performed a perfect Axel. An Axel i revolution jump that is the first big hurdle in becoming a world-class skater, or a good skater of any magnitude. Moon stood there with her jaw dropped. The skater then started warming up double-rotation jumps, and then within 5 minutes of getting on the ice she started her short program. They shared two things: they both seemed to know the same jumps and they both had cutie marks that were skating related.

There was a 2-second lead on her music, which gave the unicorn enough time to teleport over to her starting place. Moon was smart about having another skater on the ice doing her program, and she backed over to the boards and watched. She started on three legs with her right forehoof extended in front of her, and the second that the music started Moon recognized it. It was a well-known and slow song called 'Halleluiah'. She pushed forwards two times and then went right into a double Axel, which was 2 ½ revolutions. She landed it perfectly, but Moon could do this jump too. She went into a spin; she changed position at least four times and then pushed out. "Camel… sit… back sit… layback…" muttered Moon, saying the names of the separate positions as the unicorn performed them. She pushed out and went into an elaborate hoofwork sequence which covered the entire diagonal length of the ice. Her power was absolutely amazing; it was at least three levels above the rest of the program.

She performed another jump right at the end of the footwork; through the entirety of the program she looked sad and longing. Her extension was the best part of it; it kept the tone of the music despite how fast she was skating. She ended the program with another double jump. Her ending pose was on her knees, forehooves extended in back of her and looking down at the ice. The CD stopped, and it was then that the unicorn recognized that Moon had been watching her program. The unicorn fetched her CD and skated over to Moon. "Hey," she said shyly, "Uh… how was that?" "It was… amazing," Moon told her quietly in awe. The unicorn blushed, and then remembered why she'd skated over to Moon in the first place. "Um… What's your name? That is…" said the unicorn before she was cut off by Moon, "My name's Moon Pool," she said, "What's yours?" "I'm… I'm Morning Ice," she said. Smiling warmly, Moon said, "Your program is gorgeous. I especially liked your double Axel." "Oh, thanks," Morning told her, tilting her head down and to the side, "It's not normally all that good, I'm normally a hoofwork kind of pony. So… I'm glad you like it."


	2. 2 Types of Languages, 2 Types of Ponies

After the hour-long (which was quite short for each of them compared to what they'd normally skate) session, the two of them got off the ice and found that they'd put their skate bags right next to each others' on the benches in the lobby. They unlaced their skates while having a short conversation. "I really liked your program, too, by the way," said Morning Ice. "Thanks," said Moon Pool, smiling.

"Morning?" asked Moon after they'd gotten their skates off and put them away, "Want to come over to my house? I've got a twin sister, my moms are nice, and, well, I kind of like hanging out with you…" Morning smiled and said, "Sure, Moon. I'd love to." "Don't you have to tell your parents?" asked Moon. "No…" Morning said, her voice getting quiet, "I'm an orphan…" "Well then you should DEFINITELY come over!" announced Moon, "Come on!"

After walking home and conversing about various skating-related things on the way, they all got home. Wave ushered them both inside. "Your mom… she doesn't talk much," said Morning. "No, she doesn't," said Moon, "But that's because she's deaf. But that's okay, she sings great!" "Your mom is deaf?" asked Morning. "Yeah, but we know sign language, and so we can talk to her just fine! You know, like this. I'll sign something to you. You don't know any sign language, do you?" "No…" Then Moon tapped on Morning's shoulder, "I love you." "What's that mean?" asked Morning. "Oh…" started Moon, "It's… it's just a greeting," she continued. "Oh," said Morning, shrugging, "Well then…" then she tapped the same sequence on Moon's shoulder, then said, "To you too."

Wave tapped on Moon's shoulder, "You two are adorable!" "Thanks, mommy," tapped Moon back to her, "She doesn't know sign language though…" "She'll learn," tapped Wave. "I nervously await the day," tapped Moon. Then she led Morning up the stairs to her bedroom.

Once they got there, Morning exclaimed, "THIS is your room?!" She looked around at the beautiful walls; they were black and painted with white stars. Moon simply nodded. There were bookshelves lining one wall, her blue bed was against the opposite wall. "Hey, Moon!" said Morning, "The bedclothes match your mane!" It was true, the bedclothes, mattress and pillows were all of a dark blue color, and so was Moon Pool's hair. Moon's coat, however, contrasted most of the rest of the room with its alabaster color. Morning's coat was yellow, and her hair was a fiery red. She, overall, looked like a sunrise. Moon, overall, looked like the moon against a night sky, her cutie mark of a skate on a pond with a moon overhead only complimented the image.

"Hey, there are books on everything over here!" said Morning, browsing the bookshelves. "Can I stay with you?" she asked. "Uh…" said Moon, her heart hammering itself almost out of her chest, "Sure!" "I can sleep on the floor," said Morning, feeling the carpet with her hooves. "No!" said Moon, a bit too loudly and abruptly, causing Morning to simply sit there and stare, "I mean… I don't think you should do that… there is a bed in here after all…" Moon corrected herself shyly. "Okay," said Morning, "If it's okay with you, I can sleep in the bed." "It's more than just okay," muttered Moon under her breath, then said aloud, "Sure, I'm just fine with that, Morning."

Around then, the door opened. "I'm home!" shouted Sun Rider, "And I brought a friend!" Moon and Morning rushed down the stairs. "This is my twin sister," said Moon to Morning, "Her name is Sun Rider." "Nice to meet you," said Morning shyly, holding out a forehoof. "Pleasure to meet you, too!" said Sun rather loudly, shaking Morning's hoof vigorously, "What's your name?" "I'm… Morning Ice…" said Morning, constantly being jostled by Sun. "Nice to meet you, Morning! You're Moon's friend, aren't ya? Well, my name's Sun Rider and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance!"

"I think Morning's pleased to make your… whatever too, Sun. But stop being so aggressive with her!" Moon shouted, pulling her hoof down. Morning was slightly surprised at this, but she didn't complain. "Sun? Can I come in now?" asked a voice. "Sure!" shouted Sun through the door. In walked another pony.

Her coat was a sky blue, her scruffy, yellow mane nearly hid her horn and her cutie mark was a tennis racket with a red magical aura around the handle. "Who's this?" asked Moon. "This is my friend, her name is Sunset Sky. We met at the tennis court. She's REALLY good; she's almost as good as I am!" exclaimed Sun. "You're really good though, Sun," complimented Sunset, "And I can't thank you enough for giving me your spare racket when I broke mine. It was really generous of you." "Don't mention it," said Sun with a smug but happy look. "What's with the crowd in the hallway?" asked Wind Rider. "Oh, hi, mama! These are our friends, Morning Ice and Sunset Sky. They're staying over, if that's okay with you," said Moon Pool. "Okay, that's fine," said Wind, "Could you describe them to me?" "Okay," said Sun.

"Morning Ice is the lighter one, they're both unicorns but Morning is a skater. Moon met her at the rink," explained Sun, "Sunset Sky is my friend, I met her at the tennis court and she lives only a little ways away from here. She's a bit taller than I am, and her magic is really good." "Why do you have to describe this to your mom?" asked Sunset, "Can't she just see me?" "No," said Moon, defending her mother, "She's blind, you see? She can hear you, she can hear really well. But she can't see. That's why we have to describe stuff to her, and that's also why she never goes outside without one of us to guide her." "Oh," said Sunset, "That makes sense. And you don't have to get all defensive, I was just asking." "Hey, Sunset?" asked Sun, lacking in her usual brashness for once, "Do you… do you want to go to my room? It's almost night and… I was wondering if… you might want to sleep with me." "Sure, Sun!" exclaimed Sunset, galloping up the stairs, and then she shouted down, "Let's go!" "Coming!" shouted Sun up the stairs.


	3. The Real Nightmare

"You coming, Morning?" asked Moon once she climbed into bed, "It's cold over here!" "Oh!" said Morning, dropping the book she was reading the title of, running across the room and climbing into bed. "I couldn't possibly let you be cold over here! That'd be simply mean of me!" exclaimed Morning, getting under the covers and wrapping her hooves around Moon. Moon had to put all her willpower into keeping her wings still. "Better?" asked Morning worriedly, pressing herself against Moon. "Better," said Moon.

"I'm sorry if my horn gets in the way, it's kind of cold," said Morning, feeling her horn. "I'm warm now," said Moon, "Would you like me to warm it up for you?" "Sure," said Morning. "Okay," said Moon, scooting up in the bed.

Moon then started rubbing Morning's horn with her hooves. Morning let out a deep sigh and a shiver ran through her. "Better?" asked Moon. "Better," sighed Morning, "Now come here, you. We don't want you getting cold, do we?" "No, we don't," said Moon with a yawn. They both snuggled down into the covers, and then they held hooves and fell asleep.

"Sir? The preparations are ready, we await your signal." "Great," said a black unicorn stallion with a gruff voice and a smug look, "Come, Crimson," he said as he walked out of the underground office, their hooves making a click-click noise as they hit the tile floor, "We've got work to do."

The two ponies walked through the Everfree, getting their hooves dirty in the mud and muck. A stench lingered in the air, and you wouldn't have been able to tell that the stallions were there given that their colors of grey and black blended perfectly with the rest of the murky forest. They walked into a clearing, it was perfectly square and in all four corners there were tall, red and black pillars. You couldn't see the night sky overhead, the black clouds blotted out any speck of light, but the stallions knew the way. There was a huge, white circle in the exact middle of the clearing. Opposed to the rest of the forest, this place was temperate and dry; the dirt beneath their hooves was firm. The larger, black coated stallion kneeled down and put his horn on one side of the circle. The smaller, light gray coated one took the other side and placed his horn there. Inside the circle there was a complex tracing of triangles and squares, several thousand shapes that all immediately started glowing as the two unicorns' horns glowed. A bolt of red lightning stroke each of the pillars, making them glow with a red aura. The white circle was glowing brightly, and the two unicorns never broke their concentration as they poured their magic into the tracings in the dirt.

The pillars and tracings continued to glow, and the larger unicorn said a rhyme in some language, but it didn't sound any language anypony had ever spoken. As he uttered the words, if you could even call them words, a black cloud lowered down to nearly two feet from the unicorns. The only two words anypony could have recognized were at the end of the rhyme-spell. The words? 'Nightmare Moon'.


	4. Warning: War Efforts May Cause Headaches

"Hey! Moon!" It was the next morning, and Morning Ice was waking up Moon Pool. With her eyes still half-shut, Moon sat up in bed and said, "I'm awake… I'm awake…" "Good!" exclaimed Morning, "My name's Morning for a reason, I'm a morning pony! Now get up and come downstairs for breakfast, I made clover!" "You found clover?!" exclaimed Moon, fully awake now, "HOW?!" "I got some from a field… it's a couple of miles away," said Morning. "When did you get up?!" asked a now shocked Moon, looking over at the clock. It was 7:30. Morning said, "Oh, I got up at 5:00, but I could've just teleported there. I didn't have to get up then… but I felt like it. I didn't wake you because you look so peaceful when you're sleeping."

They jumped out of bed and walked downstairs, and Morning was right. There was a plate full of clover on the table for each of them, and the other four of them (Sun Rider, Wave Pool, Wind Rider and Sunset Sky, namely) were already at the table, eating their plates of clover. "After you," said Morning. "No, after you," said Moon, "You made the meal!" "All right then!" exclaimed Morning, pulling out each of their chairs and then sitting down. "You didn't have to do that," said Moon as she sat down. "Yeah, but I like being nice to everypony," said Morning. "I can see that," said Moon. "I can't!" said Wind Rider. Then everypony laughed. "Of course you can't, silly!" said Wave Pool, "But you can hear it just fine!" Another round of laughter erupted from around the table as everypony ate their clover and made various jokes.

"Princess? You asked for me?" "Yes, Twilight. I need you to do something for me, but first you deserve an explanation, given the situation we appear to be in." They were in Princess Celestia's bedroom in Canterlot Castle, and the Princess had just asked for her prized pupil. "And please, Twilight," Celestia continued, "Just call me Celestia." "Sorry," said Twilight, chuckling nervously, "Old habits are hard to break." "It's all right, but about what I called you for," said Celestia, "A cult of ponies were discovered performing advanced magic deep in the Everfree Forest last night. I believe those are ponies of the Old Lunar Republic." "Pardon me, Celestia," said Twilight, "But I only ever READ about the Old Lunar Republic, and all my sources say it died out completely over a thousand years ago, that was when Luna became locked in the moon." "That would be what I thought also, my dear Twilight, but there really aren't any other options. These ponies wear the distinct symbol of the Lunar Republic. I remember it, Twilight. I was there when the cult was founded, and I was the one who destroyed it," explained Celestia.

"What can I do about it?" asked Twilight, sitting on the couch opposite Celestia's bed. "This will be a multi-step process," started Celestia, "But it is very likely that a war will break out between those in the cult and those outside it in the process." Thinking quicker than anypony else could, Twilight said, "Well then. We're going to have to get more ponies to help out in the war. As such, I'll make a list of guidelines for joining the army, and since we're fighting the Lunar Republic again I'll call our army the Solar Empire, as it was called over a thousand years ago." "Good thinking, Twilight," said Celestia. "Thank you!" Twilight exclaimed, happy with her abilities. "But I think I'm going to need the help of two ponies in particular…" said Twilight. "Who?" asked Celestia. "I'll send for them now, you'll see."

After breakfast, Morning took all the dirty dishes and started washing them, she kept the conversation going around the table though. But that instant, a greenish flame appeared and a scroll materialized in front of Wave Pool. She noticed the symbol on the front, it was the royal crest. Wave opened it and read it aloud,

"Dear Wind Rider and Wave Pool,

I know it has been a long time since I contacted you last, but I'm writing on behalf of the new Solar Empire. You were of much help in the last Equestrian war, in the Battle of Canterlot as it has come to be called, and we would like you as well as any in your family who would like to come assist in the war against the new Lunar Republic.

Thank you for your consideration,

Your friend,

Princess Twilight Sparkle".

A vast array of questions sprung from the table from the foals. "You're PFFs with the Princess?!" exclaimed Sun, ecstatically. "You fought in a war?!" asked Morning, worriedly. "There's a Solar Empire?!" said Sunset inquisitively but loudly. "You're going to fight in another war?!" asked Moon with surprise. "Yes, yes, yes, and yes," said Wind, "Given that, who wants to come with me and Wave?" An unsynchronized but consistent stream of positive replies came from the foals. "All right, then," said Wind, "Let's go!" She got up on all four hooves and told the two unicorns, "Hop on!" "Can your wings even handle us?" asked Morning worriedly. "I lifted more than just that before, there's no reason I can't do it again. If you want to know, just read my book. I wrote it for a reason. Now hop on!" exclaimed Wind. "You wrote a book?!" exclaimed Sunset, "COOL!" "That's just about what I thought, Sunset," said Sun, they'd taken off and were flying slowly across Equestria and to Canterlot.

They arrived early the next day, and got the Princesses' permission to go straight to bed. We slept in the guest bedroom down the hallway, it was quite nice and had five small beds. Moon suggested that she and Morning share a bed, as well as having Sun and Sunset share another. That'd give them enough room. Everypony was happy with this arrangement, and soon everypony was asleep.

They awoke (by means of Morning Ice) at 7:45 the next morning, and they went up to Twilight's quarters where they said they'd meet. "Thank you all for coming," said Twilight, "But I think we should go someplace more private for this matter. We aren't sure who may be listening here." She led all of them, including Celestia, out the door and then teleported all of them to… someplace. It was an underground place, but they didn't know where they were exactly. They were faced with a large slab of solid rock, and the exit seemed to be the other way. That was the only light source, anyways. There was but a tiny, round hole in the slightly cracked rock. Before anypony could ask what she was doing, Twilight inserted her horn into this small hole. All the cracks in the rock immediately started glowing, and the rock pushed back and opened like a door. "This is the War Room," said Twilight as she ushered them inside and sat them in red velvet chairs around a stone table, "It was used in the original wars between the Solar Empire and the Lunar Republic over a thousand years ago. Nopony knows it's still here but the Princesses, Celestia and Luna." "Whoa…" said Sun. "I agree, this is impressive," said Wind.

"This room was, and now is again, used to discuss matters of war. I've asked for you because we are building an army," announced Celestia, "specifically, we have learned that the Old Lunar Republic is not, in fact, dead. They are attempting to perform a spell, the first half of which they have already done. They are using a spell to…" Celestia was cut off by a deep noise, as if the ground was going to collapse. "Oh no," said Twilight, "That's the second half."

~15 minutes earlier, in Luna's bedroom

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," said Luna, then she heard hard metal slippers clinking against the marble floor. "Tia?" she asked. "No," said a familiar voice. Luna's eyes widened when she recognized the voice from not too long ago. She had immediate flashbacks of the cold, dry space where she'd been kept prisoner for a thousand years…

"N- Nightmare… Nightmare Moon?" asked Luna, not knowing what to do. "Go back onto the moon! Tia will see you!" she exclaimed. "Our sister is preoccupied at the moment," said Nightmare Moon, "And she will be for as long as I want her to." She moved her head around in a circle, tracing a large oval with her muzzle. A bolt of lightning stroke the balcony, causing it to break off and fall all the way down the mountainside. They didn't even hear the crashing noise as it hit the ground. "I never did much like that balcony," said Nightmare Moon casually. Luna felt smaller, somehow, as Nightmare Moon's horn ceased glowing. Luna felt her mane, it was shorter, less smooth than it usually was. She looked over at the mirror, and was shocked. She was about a foot shorter, her mane was a sky blue and was cut how it was before she was trapped on the moon, and her horn was at least three inches shorter.

"You remember this form well, don't you, Luna?" asked Nightmare Moon, walking slowly around the perimeter of the room and over to Luna, gently stroking her forelock with one of her front hooves, "This is your pure form, your perfect form. Your form before _**I **_found you." She'd said the last words slowly, with a smug look both on her face and in her voice. "On the moon," started Nightmare, apparently loving to keep going back to this topic although it made Luna wince, "We were great together, you know. Although you try, you can never forget your past. Those thousand years on the moon are with you now, whether you like it or not. And it all came from **me…**"

Luna stood up and turned to face Nightmare, to face her other half. "You can't control me… I'm stronger now…" said Luna. "You think you're so special, don't you?" taunted Nightmare, "Well then, let me tell you a few things. Your magic? It wouldn't be anywhere near where it is now if it wasn't for **me**." She used a simple spell, but it was strong enough to knock Luna against the wall. "Your stature? I can take that away if I want to, because it came from **me**," Nightmare continued, using another spell to throw her onto the ceiling, then she let go with her magic and Luna fell to the floor, letting out a groan because of her now-sprained wing. But Nightmare continued, "Your relationship with your sister? **Me.**" She thrust the bed mattress on top of Luna, then threw the mattress across the room where it bounced off the wall and knocked Luna to the floor once again. "Your way of life? **Me.**" Nightmare continued to hit Luna with various large objects until nothing was left and she pulled Luna by the horn up against the wall and head butted her, nearly knocking her out and giving her a bloody nose. She continued the taunting, throwing punches with her front hooves, which were harder than usual since they were clad in the metal slippers that were part of her armor, "Your fans? Your friends? Your good name? **Me, me, ME!**" She threw Luna with great force onto the floor, pinning her with her magic and standing over her. "You and your pretty little friends have used my name as an insult, or even as a curse, way too many times," said Nightmare. "But… I've never taken your name in vain!" exclaimed Luna, coughing loudly. "Yes, but our sister has…" taunted Nightmare. "I can't be responsible for Tia!" Luna yelled, choking on a combination of tears and blood. Nightmare Moon was apparently fed up with talking for her horn started glowing with multiple auras, she spread her wings to look as daunting as possible and said, "Goodbye, Luna. Have a nice time on vacation…" she tilted her head forwards and tapped her horn onto Luna's forehead, collecting even more auras as she squinted and grinned, her small but still perfectly noticeable fangs gleaming in what was left of the light, "**on the moon...**"


	5. The Last Lights of Sun and Twilight

"Luna!" exclaimed Celestia, running down the hallway, "Luna! Where are you?!" A flash of magic from Luna's bedroom confirmed her suspicions: Luna was there. She'd recently gotten into a thing with Twilight where whoever could learn the most spells other than the ones they already knew by the end of the month would be the winner. "Luna? You need to raise the moon!" shouted Celestia at the locked door. "I'm tired, Tia!" shouted the voice, it sounded a lot like Luna's but it was lower pitched and more smug, "Can't you do it?!" "Ugh," sighed Celestia, "I really shouldn't be doing this for you, but sure. I can do it tonight." "Thanks, Tia!" shouted the voice, "I'll bring out the stars for you!" Celestia heard a shot of magic as she did so. "Okay, but only this time!" shouted Celestia, then she went up to her bedroom.

Instead of her usual yellow aura, Celestia's horn aura was shining white while she raised the moon. She watched it, and she saw a sight that she hadn't seen in several years. A sight that made her gasp. There was a shadow on the moon, it was a figure of a pony. The figure of her sister on the moon. This meant that…

"Hello, dear sister…"

Celestia whipped around to face the pony behind her. "It's been a while, hasn't it, dear Tia?" asked the alicorn, stroking a hoof down Celestia's cheek. The pony was black, easily a half a foot taller than Celestia, and her starry mane was whirling behind her. "Nightmare Moon…" Celestia muttered, "You are such a good thinker, aren't you, Celestia. That would be why you called on Twilight to do all your thinking for you? Hmm?" Celestia didn't have much of a response to Nightmare's taunting, she simply stood and glared while the pony circled around her. "Answer me!" Nightmare shouted at Celestia, throwing her against the wall and pinning her there, nearly concussing the white alicorn as she then took her hoof, threw off the golden slipper and gashed two large wounds in her upper front leg with her fangs. "You were… saying?" gasped Celestia, maintaining her moral strength though her body was in shambles. "Ah, yes. Where would you prefer? Sun or moon?" asked Nightmare, pondering it over herself, "Your choice, really. The moon is quiet and freezing, but the sun is boiling hot and constantly noisy." "It's up to you… Nightmare… Moon… You're the one seating us for this outing… you… should be the one to… choose…" said Celestia between frantic gasps for breath as Nightmare's magic held her. "Well, I personally think it only fitting for you to be imprisoned on the very body you raise and set every day, just as you did for your dear, sweet, _innocent_ sister," said Nightmare, taunting the princess as she was held there against the wall, "Well, have a good 'outing', **Princess**." Nightmare Moon tapped her horn onto the Princesses' forehead and casting her spell. Instantly the Princess vanished. The moon was now high in the sky, but the sun which had just barely peeped its last light over the horizon held the image of a pony's silhouette on it as well. "You're next, dear Twilight…" said Nightmare, transforming herself into a dark blue cloud of sparkling magic and whisking under the door, going up to Twilight's quarters to wait for her.

Twilight walked out onto the balcony of her room to look out at the night sky. "It's so pretty out tonight," said Twilight, not looking at the moon quite yet for the fact that it was currently behind the castle from her point of view. "Princess Twilight!" exclaimed what sounded like a young filly's voice outside Twilight's door, "Princess! Princess?!" Twilight ran over and opened the door. She looked down at a tiny, black, cutie mark-less filly with deep turquoise eyes. The filly gasped when Twilight opened the door. She was a unicorn with a dark blue mane and she wore light blue glasses. "Princess!" the filly gasped ecstatically, "Can you sign this poster for me? My friends will be so jealous!" The filly pulled out a beautifully drawn picture of Twilight, drawn in pen and colored perfectly, with her magic. At the top of the page it said, "Twilicorn Forever - Fan Club" in neat cursive. "Of course I can," said Twilight, picking the little filly up and bringing her inside her room. As soon as she closed the door, though, she heard yet another knock. She set the little black filly on the couch, then went to open the door. She'd said to the other filly, "I'll be right back."

Another foal was at the door, it was a little purple pegasus colt with a gray mane who held up a similar poster that said in even prettier cursive at the top the same words. When Twilight was about to shut the door, another foal showed up with a crowd of friends. They were of a vast array of colors and types, some held the posters with their wings and some with their magic, some with their mouths and they were all asking for Twilight to sign the posters. Suddenly Twilight heard a familiar voice from the back of the crowd. "Hello, Twilight!" a filly with a dark blue, starry mane, black coat and both horn and wings stepped into the room with a poster in her magical grasp. "Can you sign this for me, too?" "Nightmare… Moon?!" Twilight gasped. That very second the filly transformed. She became at least three feet above Twilight's head and her horn and wings became larger and more apparent. She also now had on Nightmare Moon's trademark armor, and had Nightmare's cutie mark. "Or did you like me better as a filly?" she asked with a disappointed tone.

Instead of being scared, the other fillies assumed that it was Luna, trying to play a trick on them. But when she showed that her fangs were real, they ran off, so it was just the two of them, Twilight and Nightmare Moon. "It's awfully nice not to have an audience when you're trying to have a private conversation, isn't it?" "What's to talk about?" Twilight asked Nightmare Moon calmly, "Oh. And by the way, I prefer the sun. I've heard it's nice and warm. Here, let me save you the work, even." Using her magic, Twilight threw herself against the walls and ceiling, pinned herself to the floor and scraped up her arm with a magical knife. Then she stood up and cast a spell that made all her bumps and bruises go away. "Happy?" she asked. Nightmare Moon just stood there. "Want me to send myself to the sun for you?" Twilight asked. "Or would you prefer I go to the moon?" "I know the spell, if that's what you're wondering!" exclaimed Twilight. "I've had enough of your blabbering!" exclaimed Nightmare. "Oh!" exclaimed Twilight. She did a spell so that her mouth turned into a zipper, and she zipped it up. "Better?" she spelled out in the air with her magic.

Vexed beyond compare at Twilight's psychology experience, Nightmare didn't even bother doing anything else and simply sent Twilight straight to the sun. "Good riddance," she muttered as she turned back into a magical cloud of smoke, sailing across the dark sky to the Crystal Empire. "Time to get rid of that Crystal Nuisance," she thought.


	6. The Last Crystalline Light

**Sorry for the delay, everypony! I actually have a whole bunch of chapters for you now! Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Nightmare Moon had never seen nor met Princess Cadence, but she knew that she was one of those sun-loving creeps, and she wanted to get rid of her. Being the alicorn that she was, though, Nightmare Moon tapped into Celestia's memory and found a small piece of Cadence's soul, the kind of piece that goes into everyone you meet. Without Celestia herself feeling a thing, Nightmare stole half of that piece; any more would have been obtrusive enough for her to notice. She instantly knew enough about Cadence to have an edge on her, and once she landed in the Crystal Empire she disguised herself as Twilight, Cadence's best friend. "This is going to be easier than I thought," she said, nearing Cadence and therefore gripping a half of Twilight's borrowed soul in the process. It was a huge half though, it was hard for her to swallow and she coughed, attracting the attention of the guards. Thankfully she'd already landed and transformed, and she said, "I'm sorry," she said, half surprised at saying things in Twilight's voice but hiding her surprise well, "I've just arrived. Where's Cadence?" The guard didn't say anything, he simply ushered her down the hall.

Sitting on her majestic crystalline throne, Cadence was looking out the window when she recognized Twilight's hoofsteps and rushed over. Although Nightmare Moon wasn't used to the dance, she did in fact know how to do it thanks to her memory spells. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" they said in unison, doing the dance that went with it. 'Twilight' rolled her eyes while Cadence wasn't looking, and then said in a cheerful tone, "Hi, Cadence! I've wanted to talk to you… tomorrow maybe?" "Good idea," said Cadence with a yawn, "You know where your room is, right?" Not having pulled this particular, small memory, though, Nightmare Moon said, "No, I must have forgotten! Can you show me to the room? I'm sorry to burden you, but…" "Its fine," said Cadence with a smile, although she knew something must be wrong if TWILIGHT was forgetting things. She kept this suspicion in her head, though, as she led 'Twilight' up to the room.

Once they got there, Cadence opened the door to the room and ushered 'Twilight' inside. Once she got back to her own room, though, Cadence began to ponder. "It can't be Twilight! It just can't be!" she said to her reflection in the mirror, "But the changeling queen is gone, so who could it be?! Only incredibly advanced alicorns could ever perform the spell if it wasn't their talent to do so like it is the changelings'! So who would be a powerful enough alicorn to do that?" She then looked out the window at the moon. She saw the pony figure on it and gasped, "Luna…"

Nightmare Moon had long since slipped down under the door of the room she'd been given, down the hallway and was peeking in through the crack under the door to Cadence's room. She slipped in, took her usual form and said, "Hello, Cadence…"

Cadence whipped around to face Nightmare Moon. Although she'd never personally met her, Nightmare was in a ton of stories and other books Cadence had read before. "Nightmare Moon?" she asked. "Right you are, dear Cadence. Right you are," said Nightmare, walking slowly closer. "SHINING!" shouted Cadence at the top of her lungs before Nightmare clamped a hoof over her mouth. "You little…" muttered Nightmare as she heard hoofsteps coming down the hall. Cadence smiled.

"CADENCE!" shouted Shining Armor, bursting through the door. He saw Nightmare Moon and instead of running he cast a protection spell. Nightmare Moon shot blasts of magic at the shield but to no avail. "I'm coming!" he exclaimed, casting yet another spell that protected Cadence. "Party poopers," muttered Nightmare Moon just loud enough for them both to hear, then her horn glowed. She sighed, "I wish I could've had more fun with banishing you, but, alas," she walked over to Cadence and shattered the spell with a simple tap of her hoof, much to Shining's surprise, the shield burst like a bubble and Cadence simply sat there. She really didn't have anywhere to go. Nightmare tapped her horn on Cadence's forehead and in an instant she was gone. She then turned to Shining, who was mourning his loss. It wouldn't last long, though, because Nightmare Moon walked over and said, "There's not enough room on the moon, there's not enough room on the sun, where to put you? Oh, I know," she continued, grinning widely, "I'll stick you in the dungeon!" She teleported them into the underground dungeons, walked over to a cell at random, opened the door with her magic and thrust him inside, she slammed the door and said, "Have a nice time! I'll tell the guards that they're to feed you three times a day. But to make sure that you aren't noticed…" Nightmare stood there, her horn glowing with multiple auras and she said, "There! I'm pretty sure they won't recognize you anymore, Shining. Or, really, you should have a different name… now that you're a mare."

Nightmare teleported all the way back to Canterlot Castle where she stood on Celestia's balcony and yelled out to all of Canterlot, "Remember this day, everypony, for it was your last! Equestria is under Lunar rule now, and THE NIGHT. WILL LAST. FOREVER!" She laughed maniacally, stomping her front hooves on the balcony so thunder rolled and lightning cracked. Nightmare then turned and dramatically walked back into Celestia's room, casting a spell and changing all banners all over Canterlot Castle from the usual Equestrian ones to banners holding a moon and her figure, lightning down the sides. She felt something was missing, though.

She couldn't place her hoof on it, but something was missing, something important. She wandered about the now very dark palace, and she felt, empty. Other than her conscience, that is. That she could almost guarantee was empty…

**Almost.**

As Nightmare sat on her newly redesigned throne, she felt something important was missing. She really couldn't grasp it but she felt lonely. She was alone…

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Nightmare Moon tried her best to ignore the noise, probably somepony complaining about the lack of sun or something stupid like that. But she couldn't…

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Rolling her eyes and trotting over to the door sulkily, she opened it only to reveal a young, yellow unicorn mare with a red mane and tail. The mare gasped when she saw her, but it wasn't a scared kind of gasp. It was an excited kind of gasp. The mare, which had a cutie mark Nightmare didn't recognize looked up at the usually terrifying Nightmare Moon and smiled. Nightmare looked down at her and gave her an evil grin, bearing her fangs. The mare simply giggled. "You're funny, Nightmare Moon," she said between laughs. "You…" said Nightmare, taken aback by the fact that this mare, who was not even half of Nightmare's height, didn't care whether she had razor sharp teeth and bat-like wings and dragon's eyes.

"Can I come in?" asked the young mare. "Uh…" Nightmare said, not knowing what to do, "Sure, I guess. Just don't touch anything!" The mare immediately stopped walking and sat there, and then she levitated herself into the air and said, "Oh. You don't want me to touch anything? Okay!" She made herself a magical ball and floated around the room in it, admiring the decorations. "That's… not what I meant…" said Nightmare. Something about this young unicorn made her wonder… "I could send you to the moon! Or to the dungeon! Or I could create a dungeon on the moon!" exclaimed Nightmare, wondering why in Equestria the mare wasn't afraid of her. "If you wanted me in a dungeon you'd have put me there already," said the mare, not even turning to face the alicorn who was threatening her, "You are the amazing Nightmare Moon: bringer of nighttime to all the land!" "Who… who are you?" Nightmare finally managed to sputter out.

"My name's Sunset Sky," announced the mare. "What do you want?" asked Nightmare Moon, wondering why this young mare would be in her castle. "Well, I like chocolate, but namely why I'm here is that I was wondering…" Sunset turned to face Nightmare, an inquisitive look on her face, "Wanna be friends?"

Suddenly, there was a voice from down the hallway.


	7. The Sun, the Sunset, and the Night Mare

"Hey, Sunset?" whisper-shouted the voice, "Everything going good? Can I come now?" "Yeah, Sun!" shouted Sunset down the hallway. "I have somepony else who'd like to meet you, too," said Sunset to Nightmare Moon. Nightmare simply stood there, already baffled by the rest of the situation. The black doors opened, and in walked a white pegasus pony with a windswept, messy red mane. "Hey, Nightmare Moon! How's it going?" she said with a brash undertone and a casual voice. She walked over and wrapped a wing around Sunset. "We wanted to congratulate you on trapping all four princesses in the sun and moon, it must have been hard," said Sun, "We also wanted to ask if you wanted to be friends with us. You must be lonely, sitting in this huge castle all the time, perfectly alone. My moms wouldn't want me here, but I don't care. You're awesome, Nightmare. I like you."

Nightmare Moon was perfectly speechless. Who would want to befriend her?! And furthermore, why?! These two young mares wouldn't be spies for Celestia or anything; they usually only let stallions into the royal guard and that sort of thing seemed to be way beyond the abilities of these two mares anyways. "So, what do you say?" asked Sunset. "I… uh…" stuttered Nightmare Moon, at a complete loss for words. She thought for a moment, though, and she realized that maybe, if they were all right with eternal night, then this may fill the indeterminable void she had been feeling earlier. Then again…

She didn't have time to think again because she knew this would be her only chance. "I'd love to," said Nightmare with a distinct lacking in her usual haughtiness. She actually sounded sort of shy. "Great!" exclaimed the two mares in unison, Sun reached her comparatively small hoof out to Nightmare Moon in a celebratory hoofshake. Nightmare took her hoof cautiously and gave it a small shake. "It's settled!" exclaimed Sunset happily, "We're friends!"

"I've got an idea," said Sun a little later, "Can we have a sleepover?" They were still bumming around the throne room; nopony seemed to be in the castle anymore. "A what?!" asked Nightmare, getting slightly less edgy around the mares but still relatively cautious. "Oh! I forgot that while you were on the moon a ton of stuff got invented!" exclaimed Sunset, "It's where a bunch of friends come over to a single friend's house, or in your case castle, and they all sleep in the same room and share ghost stories and tell about themselves and make s'mores and stuff! It's totally awesome!" "That sounds…" started Nightmare, not exactly sure of what to say because she'd never really had any friends other than Luna, but she wondered how she would have reacted had Luna asked this. "That sounds great!" she completed, her friends doing an excited jump then Sun asking, "How are we gonna get anything for the s'mores though? I don't have any bits…" "Plus sides of being an alicorn, girls," said Nightmare, materializing the ingredients for s'mores and a book of ghost stories, "Let's get this sleepover started!"

Although Nightmare was supposed to be an amazing and fearsome creature of darkness, she often wondered what it'd be like to be normal. Well, this was apparently it. She acted like a little filly, which was honestly what her mind was at that point. They'd been talking about each others' past for a while, and ended up on the subject of how Nightmare Moon managed to banish herself, a.k.a. Luna, to the moon while remaining here. More comfortable around her friends now, Nightmare told them. "Gather round, fillies and gentlecolts, and hear the amazing story of how I managed this astonishing feat!" exclaimed Nightmare as if she was talking to a crowd, her voice echoing throughout the bedroom. The mares giggled. Nightmare continued, "It all started on a dark, cloudy night in the Everfree forest. A bunch of ponies decided to bring back the evil half of the most powerful princess in Equestria. Which, at the time, was…? Luna." The mares gasped, and Nightmare Moon continued, "So then, I was born. I had all of Luna's memories and the powers that I had previously when I and Luna were one, but I used to be able to transform back into my goody-goody four-shoes self that is Luna, and now… I can't. So I'm stuck here, and that's all that happened." "Why'd you decide to overthrow the Princesses?" asked Sunset.

This baffled Nightmare Moon to no end, and for no reason whatsoever as well. She should have known the answer to this, but she didn't. It should have been obvious, but it wasn't. It used to be her ultimate goal, but now it was just kind of boring. Nopony wanted to hang with her, only these two would even stand her. "I don't know…" muttered Nightmare, "I should, but I don't. I'm just not sure anymore…" "It's okay, Nightmare. We've been there. Don't beat yourself up over it!" said Sunset, giving Nightmare an understanding pat on the back.

After a little while, they finished the s'mores and moved on to ghost stories. "I'll bet you can't scare me!" boasted Sun Rider, folding her forelegs and putting on a smug smile. "I'll bet I can!" said Nightmare Moon, equally smug. "I'll bet either of you could scare me," said Sunset timidly, "I'm scared of everything." "Boo," said Nightmare sarcastically. Sunset pretended to be scared of it. Then everypony cracked up. "I've got a good one!" exclaimed Sun. "Can you hold my hoof, though?" asked Sunset, "I'll be scared otherwise." "Sure, Sunset," said Sun sympathetically, holding Sunset's hoof. Then she started the story. "It was a dark, stormy night," she started dramatically, "Just like this one. And three ponies were having a sleepover. Just. Like. This one."

"And just when the last pony thought she was safe," Sun said quietly, before emphasizing the last and scariest part of the story, "right behind her was… THE HEADLESS HORSE!" The lights had been off the entire time and a bit of lightning stroke just then. Sun picked up a small blanket and put it over her head, creating the illusion that she was the headless horse to the other ponies. Sunset Sky screamed in terror, but Nightmare Moon remained unfazed. "What'd I tell ya?" said Nightmare haughtily, "You can't scare me. Firstly, I'm too scary in it of myself." She cast a single spell and disappeared, and then only her bright fangs reappeared right behind Sunset and Sun. Sun's blank expression remained unchanged, but Sunset let out another scream. She became fully visible again and said, "See?" "Your point…" stuttered Sunset, shaking, "Has been… made."

"My biggest problem, though," said Nightmare Moon, "Is that those ponies who brought me back have probably found out about it by now, and they will be hunting me to make me their queen or something." "Eh," shrugged Sun, "It doesn't really matter, though. If you don't like it, use your magic to freak 'em out or something!" "You've certainly proven you're capable of that!" exclaimed Sunset. "Yes, but what of you two? I can't just let you be captured!" exclaimed Nightmare. "Although teleportation is relatively hard," said Sun, "Sunset can do it. No problems. How'd you think we even got here?" "You make a valid point," said Nightmare, "But I still don't want you getting hurt." "Never mind that," said Sunset, "We should get done with the rest of the sleepover, that's the sleeping part." Everypony nodded, and they went off to bed. Sun and Sunset shared a bed, and Nightmare got her own bed. They lay down, got cozy and went to sleep.

The next morning, Nightmare woke up in her bed. She heard a gruff voice, but her eyes were still closed and she presumed it was the last of her dream. Then she heard it again, this time she made out what he was saying. "My queen? It's time to get up," he said. She then opened her eyes. The first thing Nightmare Moon saw was a gray stallion; he was dressed in purple armor with a white moon crested on the helmet and chest piece. "Who are you?" asked Nightmare sleepily. "I'm one of your royal guards, your highness," he said. "I have guards?" asked Nightmare, obviously confused. "Yes, sir," he said. She looked over to the other bed, though, and this was the real shocker.

Her friends were either gone or something else because they weren't there. "Where are the two ponies that were sleeping over there?" asked Nightmare, pointing with her hoof. "Oh," he said nonchalantly, "They've been convicted of trespassing on royal property. They're in the dungeon for the time being, the trial and execution are to be carried out tomorrow. Are you ready for breakfast, your highness?" Nightmare was shocked, to say the very least. But she managed to keep her composure, and she said, "Yes. After breakfast, though, I'd like to see them." The guard made small side comments to the extent of, "I should get a party of guards to come with you," because that Nightmare then firmly said, "ALONE."

After breakfast in the dining hall which was very big for a single pony or even for the three who used to live there, the guard led Nightmare Moon to the under-castle dungeons. Then he shut the door behind her and let her walk toward their cell, which was the only occupied one at the moment. They were in the same cell, and the second Nightmare showed her face there, she was greeted by tired, beaten and tear-stricken faces. "Hi, Sun…" said Nightmare shyly, looking at her friend. Her white coat was covered in dirt and dust; her wings were strapped to her sides by a band that was only flexible enough to let her breathe and not much else. Sunset was sitting in a corner with a small metal ring around her horn that kept her from using magic. Her once-bright yellow coat had acquired a layer of brown and black, spots of blue and red from bruises and cuts where the guards had apparently beaten her. Sun had these too, but Sunset had more of them. "I'm really sorry that I didn't know that this would happen," said Nightmare Moon, sighing. Sunset then got up from the corner and walked over.

Reaching through the bars, Sunset placed a hoof on Nightmare's chest. "It's okay, Night. That is… if I can call you that… if it's okay with you," said Sunset, then abruptly getting back on topic and continuing with the sweetness of Fluttershy, "Anyways, you couldn't have known. I forgive you." "How can you forgive somepony just like that?!" exclaimed Nightmare, "The guards who wave my banners beat you, possibly tortured you, they threw you in a cell! How could you possibly forgive me?!" "I just did!" said Sunset, "Sometimes everypony needs to be shown a little kindness."


	8. The Last Light of Sun and Sunset

The next morning although because of the eternal night time was relative now, Nightmare awoke to the same guard telling her to wake for the execution of the 'sun-loving scum'. She gave an odd half-smile and walked with him into the royal gardens, where a magical turquoise light was shining down on the wooden platform whose framework held the noose with which the ponies were to be hung. Nightmare Moon looked at the contraption in disgust, but nopony noticed. A large crowd had gathered to watch the execution, most of them guards or ponies who worked at the castle but a few were others that Nightmare didn't recognize were there as well. "Bring out the prisoners!" shouted a mare with a relatively deep voice to the crowd. Then several guard ponies brought out the two ponies, they were doing a great job of looking morose. It was then that Nightmare noticed that the horn and wing guards they had on were only for show, they each had large cracks in them. This must have been their plan. But nopony else noticed, and they were hooked up to the boards and the nooses were put around their necks. "Any last words, sun-loving scum?!" shouted the mare in their faces. "Yes, I do," said Sun, "You ponies don't actually want this, do you? You're only doing this because that your princess wants you to! Well, what if I told you that this other pony here, her name is Sunset Sky, she can cast a spell so your princess won't be able to hold you anymore! You can do whatever you like! What do you say?!"

The crowd was baffled and Nightmare was equally so. THIS was their plan?! REALLY?! Nightmare thought of this briefly and thought, "They must have another plan. They wouldn't REALLY be relying on this working." "NO!" shouted the mare on the platform with them, "Nopony is going to overthrow Queen Nightmare Moon! We want this just as much as she does! And if those are your pathetic last words, then you will die now!" "Very well," said Sun, "Do as you wish." She and Sunset closed their eyes, but then something happened.

Sunset's horn began to glow. It was barely noticeable and nopony but Nightmare noticed it at all. It glowed a dim orange, but nothing else happened. Then the trap door opened below them, and they fell. The rope pulled slack around their necks, and they looked to be choking. Their eyes had been closed, but Nightmare felt the magic surge as the life left them. She wanted to cry, but she didn't. "Good riddance," she muttered with significant but unnoticeable fakery, and she got up to leave. "Aren't we going to take them down?" asked the guard, to which Nightmare replied, "No. Leave them there. As a model to all the other scum out there."

Nightmare Moon went back into her room, she wiped off her makeup and told the guard to leave. Then she sat on her bed, looked out the window but couldn't bear the sight of anything right now, so she closed her eyes. She closed her eyes and wept, silently. "I'd thought that they'd have another plan," she thought as she sobbed into her mattress, "Or maybe they did but it happened too fast…" Nightmare dared to look out the window into the darkness one last time, half-hoping something would happen. But of course nothing did. She could swear she heard Sunset's shrill voice, calling to her…

"Night? Night?!" she almost hear Sunset calling her, "Where are you?" She loved that nickname, but she couldn't remember it without remembering her dear friends. It was odd… she'd only known them for a short time but they'd gotten so close to her. She desperately wondered who these young mares belonged to, and how incredibly distraught their mothers would've been when they found their daughters dead. But she kept hearing her name…

"Where is this place? Where am I?" asked Sunset. She didn't know where she was, all she saw was blackness. She sat there, or maybe she didn't sit but stood? She couldn't feel her hooves, or any part of her for that matter. She heard only a vague voice, it was calling her, "Sunset? Sunset? Where are you?" "Sun?!" she screamed at the darkness. "Sunset?!" she heard the darkness scream back. Then a shape, a pony's form materialized in front of her. "I'm right here!" exclaimed Sunset to the pony. "Oh," said the pony, "Hello, Sunset." She then realized who this was. "Princess…" she gasped, astonished. The alicorn said, "Yes, Sunset Sky. It is I." Her wavy, pastel mane and tail and bright white coat were contrasting to the black space they were surrounded by. "I thought you were on the sun…" "I was, my dear Sunset, I was. And I am, and we are," said the princess. "I'm on the sun?" asked Sunset. "Yes, you are," said Celestia, "But that's not important. You're not dead."

Sunset only then remembered the execution. "How? I was hung!" exclaimed Sunset, "I mean… I don't want to be dead… but I thought…" "I know," said Celestia. "But, if I'm not dead, shouldn't I be back in Equestria?" asked Sunset. "No," said Celestia, "Because you're not alive either." "How in Equestria, or actually how not in Equestria, am I not dead but not alive? Where is this place? I mean… I know it's the sun but… how…" Sunset babbled, she was confused and scared. "Is Nightmare Moon okay?!" she exclaimed. "I don't know," said Celestia, "If Nightmare is okay. That is not my business to tell. However, you can be dead and alive at the same time. And this is where you are."

"That sounds pretty straightforward," said Sunset shyly, "But… how?" "You really want an explanation, don't you?" asked Celestia, upon which Sunset nodded meekly and sat down. "Okay, then," she said, "I'll give you one." Then the princess sat down opposite Sunset and she began to explain.

"You see," started the Princess, "There is a spell. A spell that can keep ponies from death. While you were dying, you finished that spell. It would have kept you alive, but you were already mostly dead and the spell only has so much power. So, only half of the spell worked, and since you are neither living nor dead you came here." "But… how do I get back? Where's Sun?" asked Sunset. "Oh, the part of the spell you sent to help here got there on time, and the only thing that happened to her is that she got teleported to the throne room in the castle. She's fine," said Celestia, "However, there is a way for you to get back. It requires something I cannot do for you, though," she sighed, closing her eyes and looking down, "It requires you to get back by going through your own subconscious. You see," she got up and started walking, to nowhere in particular it seemed but simply to walk while talking, "This only happened because the spell got confused. It sent you here because it didn't know whether you were living or dead. You can get back by fixing the spell… making it not be so confused. To do so, you need only to journey through yourself."

They arrived at a golden arch gate, inside it was glowing white. It heavily contrasted the blackness, and Sunset and Celestia stared into the void. And to an extent… the void stared back. Celestia said to her, "The second you enter that doorway, you become the spell. You will be confused and disoriented, unsure of what to do. If you take the wrong path, your body dies, and your soul is trapped inside your subconscious where the spell is." "This is the only way out," said Sunset, almost positive already. Celestia nodded. "Okay then," she said, "Here goes something or other!" Then she jumped into the white glimmer inside the gate.


	9. A Past and Present Sunset

Between her sobs, Nightmare heard a knock. It was probably a guard or something. "Go away, leave me alone," she said in her fake, uptight tone, "I'm… I'm busy." "Oh," said a shy, incredibly high voice, "I can come back later…" Confused, Nightmare wiped the tears off her face and walked slowly towards the door. It didn't sound like Sunset or Sun, Sun was too brash for this level of shyness and Sunset's voice was less high. She opened the door, though, and she saw something she didn't exactly expect.

Sunset jumped through the white gate into… something. It looked like a sea of arcane, it was completely white and it felt vaguely magical. It felt like a halcyon world of white but she knew it couldn't be arcane. What had Celestia said earlier? Her mind was a fuzzy blur, and she didn't know what to do. Suddenly, a world materialized around her, and she recognized it immediately. It was the huge city where she'd grown up, before her father left and her mother died. She found herself in front of… the Fillydelphia City Orphanage, which was where she'd grown up from age 3 to around age 5 before she was adopted by her parents. She barely remembered it, but then she saw a little filly. Not exactly knowing what she'd been doing, she followed her inside.

The filly was yellow, her mane was a fiery red and her horn barely poked through her mane. She had no cutie mark, which was fine for a filly her age. She couldn't have been more than 4. It was then that Sunset realized that this was her at age 4. She followed the filly inside, where the filly walked up the stairs and sat there in the bedroom on the side bed, bottom bunk. The filly then started singing, but something was wrong with this. Something Sunset couldn't quite place. "No!" she said to the filly version of her, "That's not what Sunset Sky likes to do! She doesn't like singing!" "Oh?" asked the filly, "Well then what DOES Sunset like to do? I'm her, right? So I should be able to do anything I want!" "No, no, no!" Sunset told her filly self, "Sunset likes…" but she was at a loss for words. She didn't know. She tried, but she couldn't pull it out of her mind. She'd become so confused that she became irritated and started stomping on the floor. "Well, I don't know about you, but I sure like singing. I'm practicing for the opera!" announced her filly self, her voice squeaky and high, "Wanna hear me try?" "NO!" Sunset announced, but then she thought of something. Singing… Singing reminded her of notes… notes on paper… lines on paper…

"Sunset Sky likes to draw!" Sunset announced proudly. "That does sound like something I would do…" said her filly self, "Anything else? What else should I know about Sunset Sky?" "Sunset Sky likes to…" Sunset said, trying to remember. "Do you want a hint?" asked the filly Sunset. "Hints…" thought Sunset, "Hints are for cheaters… cheaters in… in…"

"Puzzles! Sunset Sky loves puzzles!" Sunset shouted out. "Good, good," said her filly self, "Anything else? What else do I need to know about Sunset Sky? What else does Sunset like to do?" Sunset thought, looking around at the surroundings. There was a couple wooden bunk beds, on the top bunk of the bed they were next to there was a piece of wire, some string, and a net… a net… nets reminded her of… Sunset couldn't put her hoof on it. She kept staring at the net on the bunk, trying to think. She thought as hard as she could until her mind ached. "Well?!" asked her filly self, forcefully, so much so that it didn't sound like Sunset anymore, it sounded like something else. Then she looked next to the net and she saw a poster, above the bed. It had a picture on it… a picture of…

"A racquet! Sunset Sky loves to play tennis!" Sunset exclaimed, tearing the poster off with her magic and shoving it in the face of the young version of herself. She found a racquet in the corner of the room as well as a small ball, she served and hit a couple shots against the wall, jumping for joy. Then the world fell apart around her, and she was plunged back into the great whiteness.

At the door, Nightmare saw a young pegasus mare, she looked exactly Sun's age. Her head was tucked back a little and her white coat purely contrasted her dark blue hair. It was brushed nicely, excepting a few flyaways in her mane. "Oh, hi, Nightmare Moon. I came to see my twin sister…" said the pony. "Who are you?" asked Nightmare. "I'm Sun Rider's twin sister, I came to check on her. She told me she'd be hanging with you and…" said the pony, trailing off. "What's your name?" asked Nightmare, wondering if Sun even had a sister. "I'm Moon Pool," she said, "Where is she? I heard her tell me explicitly she'd be 'hanging'…" Once Nightmare got the pun, she momentarily and silently giggled before realizing that Sun must've planned this all along. She squinted, trying to hold back a sob, and she said to Moon Pool, "Come with me."

The next thing Sunset saw other than the overwhelming whiteness was the courtyards outside Canterlot Castle. There was the large wooden frame on which they'd been executed, and she saw from the back of the audience's point of view the execution. There was a mare who was shouting out to the audience, although Sunset didn't exactly realize what she'd said. A couple of guard ponies brought out two ponies, Sun and… herself. Then time just… sort of… stopped. All excepting her and the other Sunset. "What's going on?" asked the other Sunset, the one on the platform. Sunset teleported to… herself… and said, "This isn't real. But I need you to help me fix this."

"Fix? Fix what? There's nothing to fix!" shouted her other self, it seemed incredibly incoherent to her. Sunset rubbed her head. "I need you to help me fix myself. For after this you're going to meet Celestia in an astral plane because you're not living and you're not dead and… I don't know what's going to happen. Just… I don't know." Her other self said, "This makes no sense!" "I know," said Sunset, "But you've got to trust me." "TRUST YOU?!" her other self screamed, "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU…" then Sunset clamped a hoof over her mouth. "Be kind," she said. "But how do I do that?" asked her other self. "Take my hoof," was the only thing she had to offer speech-wise, Sunset's head hurt but she held out her hoof. "What's going to happen?" asked her other self, scared. "You've been brave before," she told her other self, "You can do it again. Just be kind… be brave…" Then her other self took her hoof.

At first nothing happened at all. Then a magical bond of a red vine-like thing crawled around their conjoined hooves, but they weren't scared and they didn't back away. Somepony else seemed to be chanting something incoherent, softly, and the red aura continued and turned more and more orange until it crawled all over both of them. They shut their eyes as it crawled over their faces and up to their horns, moving their heads closer and closer until their horns touched. Suddenly the orange aura came around their horns and an orange beam of light came up from their conjoined horns, shooting into the sky and lifting the two unicorns off the ground altogether. Nopony knew where the horn-ring went, but it didn't matter. The present and future united, and the entire place was blasted with a white light when…


	10. A Future Sunset

The world overflowed with white and Sunset's other self vanished into the white. Sunset didn't know what would happen to her, but she didn't have any room in her mind to think right now. She sailed through the shining whiteness, and she didn't know what would happen next. After past and present there should be…

Future. Sunset fell onto a floor, or if you could even call it a floor. She didn't know what would happen, but suddenly she felt cold. She opened her eyes and found that what she'd fallen into was snow, although it had a bluish tint to it. She then heard something… she didn't know what it was but Sunset knew that it couldn't be good. She heard screaming and clashing of metal. It sounded like a war, and when she got the energy to stand up and figure out where she was she found out that it was a war. There was a huge amount of shouting and clashing of what she now saw were swords, and Sunset stood atop a large mountain near Canterlot and looked down at the battle, which was destroying the once-beautiful city. On another mountain, though, on the other side of the city, Sunset saw something else. Or rather, somepony else.

Sunset saw what she now was almost positive, given the circumstances, was her future self, standing on the opposite mountain. Knowing where her future self now was, she teleported. "Who are you?! Why are you not in battle?!" shouted her future self at her, causing her already windswept hair to fling back with the force of the wind. "I'm you! And I'm from the past! And I need your help!" "Oh," said her future self with much less force, "Well then. How can I help you?" "I don't know… I just know that you've got to help me! How'd you get here?" Sunset asked her future self. "I don't remember…" she said, "I think it involved a spell…" Sunset discovered all she'd needed there. "The spell!" she exclaimed, "that's it! All we've got to do is cast the spell again! Then it won't be confused, like it was earlier!"

"Okay," said Sunset's future self, "Let's cross horns. That way we can cast the same spell at the same time." Sunset nodded, "Let's do this." They crossed horns and sat down on the tiny space that was the mountain top, their tails hanging off the edge. Future Sunset didn't know what the spell was, but after Sunset herself started casting it she caught on. They closed their eyes, and the spell started. At first it was a single, small aura, barely visible. But then it grew larger and stronger, they could tell that it was no longer confused of what it was supposed to be doing. Suddenly a bright red beam of light shot up from their horns and into the sky. It erupted into a thousand tiny sparkles which then drifted, rather quickly though, down toward the ponies. It sunk into their coats and then a reddish-orange glow circled the two of them, and it faded into whiteness. Sunset wasn't sure where her future self had gone, but she couldn't think at all now, because she was thrust out of every ounce of being and down onto something hard. She couldn't tell what it was, but she felt… better. She didn't open her eyes, but she heard somepony calling her. At first the voice was distant, but Sunset then made it out more, "Sunset! Sunset? Are you okay?" asked Sun, who was standing over her. Sunset opened her eyes and saw the mare on top of her, she pulled the energy out of herself to sit up and kiss her.

"I'll… uh…" stammered Sun, blushing furiously, "take that as a yes." "Right-O!" exclaimed Sunset, slowly getting to her hooves. "Where's Moon Pool and Morning Ice?" Sunset then asked. "Oh, they're someplace around here…" said Sun, grinning.

Nightmare Moon led Sun's sister down to the place where Sun and Sunset had been executed. Once they got there, Nightmare didn't open her eyes. She'd seen it already. After a few seconds, Moon said, "This is a nice wooden contraption, Nightmare Moon, but where is my sister?" This made Nightmare open her eyes. They weren't there! There wasn't even a trace, such as the wing-binder or the horn ring. There was nothing at all. Nightmare decided it was time for some magic. Her horn glowed and she looked cross-eyed up at it. It blinked slowly and steadily, she threw her head in various directions. Then she turned around and it blinked slightly faster, she kept walking that direction and motioned for Moon to follow her.

"What are you doing?" asked Moon in her shy, high-pitched tone. "Location spell," said Nightmare, "I'm trying to find your twin sister." Her horn led her across a long hallway and into the large, spacious throne room. Nightmare stopped her spell and looked around. She only heard a soft flapping noise. The next thing she heard was Moon Pool. "I'm so glad I found you!" she exclaimed. Then Nightmare Moon looked up, and saw another pony hovering there along with Moon. "S… Sun… Sun Rider?" stuttered Nightmare, asking the other pony. The pony simply flew down to the ground. She showed Nightmare her flank, her cutie mark was the racket with two pegasus wings attached to it that it'd always been… and Nightmare knew. "It must be you, Sun. It's nice to have you back. Where's Sunset?" "Oh, she's around," said Sun casually, "SUNSET!" "What is it, Sun?" asked Sunset, who then promptly realized who was here, "Oh! Uh… Hi, Night. It's… Uh… Well…" she stammered, trying to think of something to say and failing. Sunset simply ran up and hugged Nightmare, saying, "It's nice to see you're okay." Nightmare hugged her back and said, "I was really worried about you two."

"Your highness, I…" Nightmare heard a voice, and before she could do anything the guard sat there wide-eyed and asked, "What's going ON?!" Nightmare Moon tried to stammer out a few words, but it didn't work and she was speechless, like a filly caught stealing from the cookie jar. "I'll tell you what's going on," said a familiar voice.

Morning Ice stepped out from behind the throne, walking up to the guard and completely trashing her usual shy, doormat-like demeanor. "We're all best friends," she said to the guard, trotting quickly over to stare him right in the eyes, "And I don't appreciate you being mean to them. Got it?!" The guard shrank below this pony, who stood on her forehooves just to look down on him. The guard stood there wide-eyed and nodded sheepishly. "Good," said Morning definitively, "Now. What do you have to say for yourself?" "I… I…" the guard stammered. He stood there and looked up into Morning's eyes, she had the same perfect deep cyan eyes that Sunset had… "I'm sorry, Sunset!" he exclaimed, cracking, "I shouldn't have left you!" He whipped off the dark purple helmet to reveal a bright red, shaggy mane that perfectly matched Sunset's. "Dad?" asked Sunset, "But I thought…"

Everypony else was perfectly speechless. They just stood there, looking. "Yes, I was gone," said the stallion, slowly walking up to Sunset, "Because I couldn't drag in enough bits to support us." "Well," said Sunset, "I've got my own family now. Adios, random stranger." She whipped her tail in his face as she turned around and left. "Understood," said the stallion after her, then he left, muttering, "Time to find another line of work."

"What was that for?" asked Morning shyly to the rest of the crew, who shrugged. "I'm not sure, Morning," said Sun, "But I know that we shouldn't be bothering her. Or at least you shouldn't. I'm… closer to her. I'll go talk to her." Then Sun walked, alone, out onto the balcony Sunset had walked out to.

"Hey, Sunset," said Sun shyly, walking up to the unicorn, "What's up?" "Oh, it's just that my father left me when I was 3 and… I never thought I'd see him again. Good riddance, too. He was a jerk…" started Sunset with a sigh, "And I figured out that he dumped me and my mum, who had a bad disease at the time, on the streets because he couldn't find enough work that was easy enough for him. I'd have liked to kick his sorry flank goodbye but, he shows up AGAIN! Ugh…" "It must be hard for you," said Sun, wrapping a hoof around Sunset. She simply nodded. "There's gonna be a war soon, you know," said Sunset nonchalantly, "We better get prepared for it…" "Is that a big of magic?" asked a now confused Sun, "Can unicorns read the future?" "No, not exactly. I know because… well…" started Sunset, not remembering anything from earlier because her head hurt when she tried, "I don't remember. The point is it's not magic. It's… something else. Oh, and I met Celestia. In my head." That was the only piece of information she'd been able to retrieve.

"Whoa…" said Sun, "Cool. Anyways, you need some help." "I've got all the help I need, right here," said Sunset, poking a hoof at Sun's chest. Sun's wings popped off her back, she couldn't help it. "Well," said Sun sleepily, "Then let me help you." "Happily," said Sunset.

Back in the throne room, the rest of the gang had seen their shadows. But at that moment, they saw the two of them kiss, and Morning said, "Well. I know what she meant by 'I'm… closer'." Everypony nodded. "By the way…" said Moon, her shyness getting the best of her, "I was wondering if you'd like to… mmf!" She couldn't talk any more, for Morning clamped a hoof over her mouth and tapped on her back, "I know." Moon's eyes got wide when she realized that Morning knew sign language. "You…" Moon signed to her, tapping on her back as well. "Yep!" said Morning, who then tapped out to Moon, "I love you, too. And I mean it this time."


	11. Constellations and Nightmares

"You know that, at some point, you're going to have to set the Princesses free…" said Sun to Nightmare, they were all in her quarters. Before Nightmare could answer, though, a half a dozen guards burst in. Upon seeing Sun and Sunset, the one in the front said, "You're supposed to be dead! I thought you WERE dead!" Sun tried to say something, but Sunset placed a hoof over her muzzle gently and said calmly, "I was. But I got better." "These are my friends," said Nightmare, standing up and towering over the guards, "And if you've got a problem with them, you've got a problem with me." "Oh, certainly not, your highness," said the guard next to the first one, "We wouldn't dare oppose you, my Queen. We shall leave now."

"Whoa…" said Morning, "You're good." "They're my guards," said Nightmare Moon. One had stayed behind, though. "What is it?" asked Moon. The guard said, "I've been sent to inform your highness that a large war has broken out between the Solar and Lunar empires. We are unsure of which side is winning, so far." "How'd you…" asked a baffled Sun to Sunset. "I manage," said Sunset.

After the guard left, they started postulating over what side they'd want to win. But at one point, a guard came in, asking anypony who'd like to know to come and see something. Of course, everypony walked there. They walked up to the top of Canterlot Castle, up to the balcony with the telescope. "Look around," said the guard, "And tell me what you see." Nightmare walked up to the telescope and looked around. She looked around Canterlot, and she saw something astonishing. Every single shop was closed, and as she peered into a few windows the ponies were starving and freezing. The only reason Canterlot Castle wasn't entirely hungry or freezing? Magical heating. Regardless, Nightmare looked over at the ponies who lived in the few cities upon the mountain range and saw other, equal things happening. She could imagine this was happening all over Equestria as well. "Everypony's starving and freezing!" Nightmare exclaimed. "Exactly what I was thinking, my queen," said the guard, "How does one rule a dead kingdom?"

After they were finished with looking around Canterlot, they went back to Nightmare Moon's room to discuss it. After a ton of ideas such as, "Give all of Equestria magical heating", and "Make the moon brighter", Morning suggested something, rather shyly. She said, "Why don't you just bring back the sun?" At first she wanted to shun the very thought of bringing back the sun, but after Nightmare thought about it a bit, she felt this was the only obvious solution. She could return Equestria to its usual cycle of day and night. That way she could rule a happy kingdom. "I've got an idea," said Sun brashly, "We could have a National Nightmare Day, where it'd stay dark the entire day! That way we could have a single day where it stayed nighttime!" That was an incredible idea, thought Nightmare, and it would be perfect so that she wouldn't have to release the Princesses for a bit longer. She dreaded the very day that she'd have to do that. "Perfect!" said Nightmare, "Let's do it!"

They walked down to the throne room, where Nightmare looked out the window. She stared over at the horizon, and her horn glowed yellow as she hoisted the sun, slowly but surely, off the horizon and into the sky. "I'm going to check on my kingdom," said Nightmare to the others, "I'll be back by sundown. That's going to be in 48 hours, I think these ponies deserve an extra long day to compensate for the two-week night."

They waved her off, and Nightmare transformed into a dark blue, starry cloud of magical smoke. She slunk along the ground, going across Equestria at an incredible clip towards Ponyville. Once she arrived there, she saw a beautiful sight. A huge party, celebrating the return of daytime. There was music pounding at the loudest possible volume, there were no clouds in sight and a rainbow streaked across Ponyville (which had obviously come from a sonic rainboom, a.k.a. Rainbow Dash was here). There were balloons and streamers everywhere (probably courtesy of Pinkie Pie), and large, golden, silky banners hung across the town hall (definitely Rarity-made). Nightmare sat there as a cloud of smoke under a tree and watched. If she hadn't been busy being a cloud of magic, she would have been grinning ear to ear. There was even a magic show going on, and a light blue pony with a lighter blue mane and a purple starry cape and hat was performing to the ponies there. She was trying all kinds of high-level spells, but suddenly she missed and cast a spell deep into the Everfree forest.

A loud, booming roar erupted from the forest, drowning out the music which the DJ had recently turned off to listen to the noise. Nightmare slunk in her cloud of smoke toward the forest. She went along the pathway, listening to everything. Suddenly she heard a series of large footsteps. Nightmare recognized it, it had to be… But it couldn't! Once she saw it, though, Nightmare had no choice but to believe it. It was…

An Ursa Major. The colossal, purple constellation bear with a tiny, black burn mark on its chest was lumbering rather loudly towards Ponyville. Nightmare had never heard of anypony, even an alicorn, who had ever defeated an Ursa Major. She realized it was going right towards the tiny town, which had no defense whatsoever. It'd take forever to get the royal guard down here, it'd take even longer to arm the ponies and mount a defense. Since the most powerful alicorn was trapped on the moon and would probably be furious with her if she let her out, Nightmare had only one more option. Transforming back into her pony self and hiding near a tiny tree near the edge of the forest, Nightmare focused her magical energy. Teleporting seven things from all over Equestria was a hard task, even for an alicorn.

Suddenly, the magical energy ceased, and out of the dark blue smoke appeared all six moderately confused ponies, and one more thing. It was a large, blue trunk inlaid with gems. Nightmare looked around, and there were three Ursa Minors following the Ursa Major. The Major's toenails were the size of the trees, never mind the rest of it. The Minors were the size of a large building, plus some extra. But Nightmare opened the trunk and got out something. She'd gotten out of the chest…

The Elements of Harmony. Nightmare laid them in a pile in front of the six, and said quickly, "I need you all to find the one quality you are best at displaying, and put on that necklace. You know what they represent, do it. Ponyville, and possibly all of Equestria, is at stake." Sun Rider grabbed the Element of Generosity, and everypony nodded. Morning Ice sheepishly grabbed the Element of Kindness, and everypony nodded again. Sunset Sky grabbed the Element of Honesty, and everypony nodded once again. Wave Pool helped Wind Rider pick up and put on the Element of Loyalty, and everypony nodded again. The only Element left was Magic, but the only pony left was Wave Pool, and she was a pegasus. She gently grabbed the tiara and placed it on her head, and it began glowing. It glowed like a small star, and a rainbow ribbon connected all six of the ponies. Then, as soon as it had started, it stopped and disappeared.

They all knew what they needed to do, but they didn't know how. In the meantime, the Ursas would need a distraction. Or maybe a dozen. Nightmare Moon became the magical cloud, and split herself into a dozen different versions of herself. They were each normal pony-sized, but they were all still alicorns. "Whoa…" said Morning, "You can do that?" "Yes," they all said in unison. Then they all flew out in the direction of the Ursas. Just as the Ursa Major was just about to stomp on a house, though, one of the Nightmare Moons flew under the humungous paw and lifted it up. Utilizing both her flight and magic, that specific clone lifted the paw up out from the building and tied its front paw to its back one with a chain. That would only hold it for a little while, though.

Meanwhile, a clone was handling each of the twelve Ursa Minors. The other nine had come after the initial ones, but they barely kept track of all of them. Suddenly, a bunch of Lupus Minors came running like hounds out of the woods. Apparently, if one Ursa Major was hurt, all of the constellation creatures came running out to defend it. There were at least a dozen Lupus Minors, and Nightmare saw this. Since all the clones thought alike, they all joined into the same cloud of smoke in the center of town, then split into two dozen, only half as strong alicorns. They then spread out to cover all of the constellation creatures.

Lupus Minors are tiny, only about half the height of a normal Ponyville building, but what they lack in size they more than make up for in speed, and Nightmare's clones could only barely handle all of them. The clones were getting scratched and dinged up this way and that, and when a single clone got hurt it would hurt Nightmare as a whole. Meanwhile, all the townsponies were evacuating their homes and going to the town hall, as Nightmare's clones had all told them to at various points.

By now, only a few Lupus Minors were left. The rest had flee, Lupus are quick to flee. By now, though, only two Ursa Minors were left and of course, the Ursa Major. But by now, the new users of the Elements were ready. They set up right in front of the Town Hall, and the minute Wave and Wind held hooves the magic started flowing. Then Sun and Sunset held hooves, and the magic grew stronger. A rainbow was starting to form between each of the pairs. Then Morning and Moon held hooves, and a rainbow ribbon formed around all six of them. The Ursa Major barely noticed given that it was being kept busy by Nightmare's clones. The rainbow grew stronger as each pair closed their eyes, all of them bundling closer together and floating into the air. They pressed closer, and the magic grew yet stronger. It didn't seem to get much stronger, though, until…

Sun and Sunset kissed, which seemed to trigger something in all of the rest because soon everypony was kissing. The rainbow was blinding now, it circled them in a spectra ball and hoisted them even higher in the air. Suddenly, a huge rainbow shot out of the tiara on Wave's head. It arced over toward the Ursa Major, which was immediately circled in a rainbow tornado which whirled it out of Ponyville and back to the Everfree Forest. The other constellation monsters were also encircled in smaller rainbow tornados and whisked back to the Everfree.

As soon as the magic was finished, the ponies drifted slowly to the ground. The Ursas had been vanquished, and Ponyville was safe and sound… or at least it almost was. Nightmare Moon was laying on the ground, every single injury her clones had taken on was now upon her. She had several obviously broken bones and she was barely breathing. Her magical mane and tail had both been reduced to a few tiny wisps, and her eye shadow was smudged. Her armor was dented and had several claw-holes in it, from which she was either bleeding or bruised underneath. Morning ran up to Nightmare, saying, "Are you okay?!" Then Moon shouted in her high-pitched voice as loud as she possibly could, "I NEED A DOCTOR! IS THERE A DOCTOR ANYWHERE?! WHY WON'T ANYPONY HELP HER?!" Suddenly a white pony with a bright pink mane and a nurse's cap galloped over and poked around. "She's got a three broken ribs… Multiple large bruises… A broken wing… Some really bucking thick armor…" said Nurse Redheart, carefully getting Nightmare's armor off, then she continued, "Also several large cuts and… burns? Claw-marks… Teeth-marks… Hoof-marks… Paw-marks…"

"We need to get this mare to the hospital!" she shouted. "The hospital was destroyed immediately after all the patients were evacuated," pointed out a grey pegasus mare named Ditzy, pointing with her hoof over to where the Ponyville Hospital used to be, now a large pile of dust and debris. "We've only got one option, then," said Nurse Redheart, "Take her into the town hall!" Two stallions picked Nightmare up and put her on a stretcher and took her into the town hall. "That'll have to do for now," thought the Nurse.


	12. The Shield of Ponyville

Nightmare was brought inside the incredibly crowded Town Hall, where everypony was sitting, laying, or standing around on the floor. All the while, her friends were galloping behind the stretcher, there was no room on the sides. You couldn't stir the ponies in there with a stick! But they had to make room, so they stacked a bunch of curled up blankets, pillows and other soft objects into a large bed, just long enough to hold Nightmare while she was in a position where she wouldn't put any stress on her broken ribs and wing. They lay the unconscious Nightmare Moon onto the makeshift bed, and they found space for the rest of them. They would have gone outside but they were afraid more constellation monsters would come and demolish what little was left of the town, and Nightmare was now in no condition to fight off some more of them.

They found a spare tiny mattress for Sun and Sunset to sleep on, there weren't any spare blankets. A few tiny rags would have to do, but they didn't care. Moon and Morning slept on the bare floor, using a flag as a blanket. They almost said that they didn't need any blankets, but it was too cold for any of them to say anything about that. With Nightmare out cold, the sun and moon both dropped below the horizon because she'd run out of magic for them to tap into for energy. It became dark and cold quite quickly, and soon everypony found a viable heat source to keep from frostbite. "Do you think Night will be okay?" asked Morning, worried and cold but mostly scared. "I don't know…" said Moon, "I really don't know. I do know that it's not a good idea to be getting frostbite, though." She wrapped her wings around Morning to keep her warm. Morning gave a half of a smile when she thought of something new, though. "I'm gonna need your help for this, Moon. It'll be hard, but I think we may be able to save Ponyville."

"Okay…" said Moon shakily, "What do I have to do?" "We're… going to need more room…" said Morning. They walked outside into the cold, dreary darkness, their coats already covered in smudges of dirt and bruises, as well as some small cuts long since scabbed over. "Moon…" Morning said shyly, "Take my hooves." They sat on the cold, hard ground which had been void of rain or any ounce of water for a very long time, and they held hooves. Moon took Morning's hooves and wrapped her wings around her friend to keep her warm. "…That works too…" said Morning sheepishly, then touching her horn on Moon's forehead and inching under her mane. Moon didn't even bother asking what she was doing, she already knew. Morning was tapping into Moon's magic reservoir, to get strength for her spell. Moon didn't know what Morning was doing, and for that matter Morning didn't know herself mostly, but she started casting a complex spell.

It started with a few short bursts of magic that jolted their bodies collectively, they held on tighter simply to stay there but ended up taking the spell to its next stage quite rapidly. Then the spell made a bright, white force field around the two of them, which caused them to heat up quite rapidly. It also got brighter, they saw it even behind their closed eyes. Morning smiled and so did Moon, as they knew the spell was working. Morning started pouring more and more energy into the spell, and after a long while the force field got bigger, slowly, encompassing about ten feet in diameter in a white dome around the ponies.

They felt like collapsing, but Morning and Moon pulled on. Their own magic reservoirs almost tapped out, they started trying to pull magic from other ponies. But nopony was in range, and they nearly fell over. But when Moon wrapped her hooves around Morning's neck and pulled her closer, then a sudden burst of magic caused the spell to spike, they no longer felt tired. Morning wrapped her hooves around Moon, and another magical spike was caused. But suddenly, after the spell encompassed a diameter globe of about thirty feet, they felt something else.

Two more brand new magic reservoirs, and they hadn't been tapped… yet. These two must have been Sun and Sunset, they'd walked outside and seen Morning and Moon's magic circle and decided to help. Sunset immediately recognized the spell, and she cast the same thing. "I'm here to help," she whispered in Morning's ear as she cast it, turning the circle neon orange by blending their white and orange auras. She sat down right beside Moon and Morning and motioned for Sun to do the same. Sun happily obliged, and she sat down across from Sunset not two feet from Moon and Morning. "Ready?" asked Sun shakily, grasping Sunset's hooves for protection and strength. She wrapped her wings around Sunset and heard her friend say, "Ready."

Sunset knew all about magic: how it works, what makes it stronger, how to use it, spells and the like. As she cast the spell, she pressed herself against Sun, closing her eyes as tight as they'd go. She placed her horn onto Sun's forehead, and instead of simply leaving it there she proceeded to draw small circles around where Sun's horn would have been, had she had one. A line of pure red magic connected itself from that spot and to Sunset's horn, then up to the circle, making it more red-orange. Sunset smiled, she'd been smiling the entire time and pouring her happiness into her magic as well. Barely audible to Sunset, Sun asked, "Are you sure that this is going to work?!" She opened her eyes just enough to look at the Element on her chest, it was glowing slightly. Then Sunset said, "Positive." The gemstone glowed brightly, pouring a bright and glittering orange into the force field, which was now at least seventy feet in diameter and was almost to the edge of the Town Hall.

They tapped their much larger magical reservoir into the shield, which immediately got twenty feet larger, encompassing the town hall. A bunch of ponies were probably quite shocked now. Nonetheless, each was pressed against the other so close that their necklaces touched, making a clinking noise that was immediately drowned out by the magic. The entire thing was now at least a hundred feet across, possibly with a little extra. Nopony said anything, firstly because that they would have been drowned out by the magic, it made a distinct noise but it was incredibly loud for the fact that the force field was so big; secondly because they had nothing to say. However, Moon and Morning signed a bit. "How big is this thing going to get?!" signed Moon. Morning thought for a moment, then tapped back, "Well, how big is Ponyville?"


	13. Thunder Clouds

~20 minutes later, inside the Ponyville Town Hall

"Mommy? MOMMY!" A small pegasus filly was shouting around, trying to find her mother. Suddenly she bumped into somepony, it wasn't too uncommon for such a thing to happen, given how crowded it was, however the pony in particular was the interesting part. She'd then tripped over a corner of a mattress and almost fell onto the floor. "Whoa, there," said the pony she'd bumped into earlier, "that was almost a huge mess up! Nice save, though!" "Sun Rider!" exclaimed the grinning filly. "Hey, kid," said Sun with a grin, "What's your name?" "Oh my gosh! Oh… uh… my name's Thunder Cloud!" said the dark gray filly, her fluffy, light gray mane bounced up and down as she jumped in place, but she stopped when she remembered what she'd been doing. "I… uh… I was looking for my mommy…" said Thunder. "Well then," said Sun, cheerfully, "Let's find her."

Sun picked up the filly and put her on her back, then she took off. She flew over the crowd, and Thunder looked around. "What's your mom look like?" asked Sun. "She's got a sky blue coat but she has a light gray mane like mine. Her mane is cut short and…" started Thunder before she was cut off. "There she is!" shouted Sun, diving down. "Mommy!" shouted Thunder, running over to the other pegasus pony. "Thank you for finding my daughter," said the pony, picking Thunder up and hugging her daughter, smiling. "You're welcome," Sun told her, taking off again. "You're so nice," said Sunset once Sun Rider got back. "So are you!" said Sun. Sunset rolled her eyes, "Please. I'm not as generous as you are." "That's because I'm the Element of it, silly!" Sun said. "Oh, come here, you," said Sunset, smirking.

Nightmare woke up, quickly, but she couldn't move. She gathered her strength to open her eyes, and she saw… the inside of the town hall? There were tons of ponies in there, she felt not warm, not cool, simply temperate. "Uh… Night?" she heard a voice say. She couldn't place the voice, but Nightmare knew who it was. She coughed loudly and tried to sit up, then she decided that was a dumb idea and resorted to laying back down. "Hi, Morning Ice…" said Nightmare. "I would hug you, but your wing is broken…" said Morning sadly. "It's okay…" said Nightmare, before realizing what Morning had just said, "My wing is broken?" "Yeah…" said Morning shakily, brushing her forehoof back and forth on the ground, "Your right wing and three ribs. You've got marks and cuts and bruises everywhere, most have healed by now, but…" said Morning, trailing off, then she said, "I missed you…" "I missed you too, Morning," said Nightmare, smiling.

"Nightmare!" shouted Moon, "You're awake!" She rushed over to her friend. "I'm…" started Nightmare with a groan as she tried to sit up again, "…Fine." "No, Nightmare…" said Moon, placing a hoof on her friend's chest, "Stay and rest. Here, let me tell you a nice story." "Can I do the soundtrack?" asked Morning quietly. "Sure, Morning," said Moon. "Now close your eyes," said Moon, dramatically, "For I will tell you the amazing tale of Daring Do, and her unwritten quest to map out the Alicorns' Tomb!" "Bum, Bum, BUM!" sang Morning, adding more emphasis. "This…" said Nightmare, "Sounds good."

"And she nearly lost her hoofing, which would have sent the brave Daring Do into the endless chasm below her, but she regained her balance and kept walking slowly and carefully across the single, rotting rope that was the only thing tied across the huge gorge!" exclaimed Moon, telling her story. "Dun dun Dun!" sang Morning dramatically Nightmare was smiling, her eyes closed but she was very much not asleep. Every once in a while she would squint and groan, but it didn't happen too often and Morning got over her worrying. "But then, out of nowhere, swooped in a huge, red, bat-like creature!" exclaimed Sun, having just swooped in herself, "But Daring stands on her back hooves on the rope and punches it from the side, knocking it into the chasm!" "I… don't think that was in there, Sun…" said Morning. "Yeah," Sun said, "But it was cool anyways!" "Agreed," said Moon, "But can I get on with it?"

Suddenly Nightmare Moon heard another voice. It was shrill and high, it sounded like a filly. She opened her eyes to reveal a dark gray filly with a light gray, poofy mane and tail. She asked, "Uh… Nightmare? Can you raise the sun? I kind of want some daylight…" "I don't think that Nightmare Moon's in any condition to…" said Sun, before she was cut off by Nightmare. "Yeah, sure. I can do it. I've got one question though," she said to the filly, "Can you help me?" The filly was overjoyed, she flitted her tiny wings with excitement and said, "Would I?!" She then flew as quick as she could out the door, Nightmare flew along with her using her magic to hover for her inability to walk or fly. "How does she even breathe without hurting herself? Her ribs are snapped in two!" exclaimed Morning, worriedly. "She'll manage," said Sunset, having recently walked out of the crowd. "Sunset?!" asked Sun. "Yeah…" said Sunset, "Sorry I wasn't there. I was helping a mare named Cloudy Sky find her daughter." Sun giggled, but she wouldn't tell anypony why.

Nightmare sat outside, and told the filly to sit across from her. "You ready?" she asked, "By the way. What's your name?" "Thunder Cloud!" exclaimed the filly, so excited she looked like she was going to burst. "Okay, Thunder," said Nightmare, holding out her hoof, "Take my hoof." The filly took her hoof, she was probably about 9 or 10 but had no cutie mark, and still her hoof looked infinitesimal compared to Nightmare's. Nightmare's horn glowed a yellow-orange, and she raised the sun. After she was finished, though, the filly said, "Uh… Nightmare? Where's the sun?" Nightmare looked up, it was still black outside the shield. "Those are thunder clouds," said Nightmare, "It's a storm. It must have gathered overnight, and because of the darkness we didn't notice. But… I can't fly, and I don't know any spells for that." Thunder fluttered her wings. "Oh, yeah!" exclaimed Nightmare, "Can you fly?" Thunder nodded vehemently, and she took off. But she couldn't get through the shield. "Know any spells to get rid of this thing?" asked Thunder. Nightmare walked over to the edge of the shield, took her hoof and tapped it. It shattered, popping like a bubble. "Thanks!" shouted Thunder.

However, soon they both saw a rainbow blur fly out of the Town Hall. The blur ended and a sky blue mare hovered where the rainbow ended, her prismatic mane still visible despite the dim light. "Rainbow Dash?" asked Nightmare, recalling her faint memory of the pony. "Yep!" said Rainbow, "Hey, kid? Wanna help me do some cloud busting?" "Would I ever!" said Thunder. She kicked a cloud, but all it did was bounce her hooves back at her. "Clouds work that way," said Rainbow, "You've got to kick them harder. Watch me, I'm awesome at this!" She kicked a cloud nearby, and it disintegrated into small fluff balls. "You make it look so easy, Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Thunder, "I'm never gonna get my cutie mark at this rate!" "Just try again!" said Rainbow encouragingly. Thunder's face became a look of determination, and she stood on one thunder cloud, carefully, and kicked the one beside it. Instead of bouncing her back, though, it became a few small balls of black fluff. "I did it!" exclaimed the overjoyed Thunder. "Hey, kid?" asked Rainbow Dash, "Wanna know something else you did?" "Did I…" said Thunder, wide-eyed. "Yep! You've got your cutie mark!" said Rainbow, "Now. Wanna help me do the rest?" "Absolutely!" shouted Thunder, kicking the clouds this way and that. At one point she got to look at her flank, her cutie mark was three black clouds. Rainbow Dash was kicking a few clouds but seemed dissatisfied, then she flew as high up in the air as she possibly could, and she built up speed going down. She put her hooves in front, and her mane flapped in the wind. Knowing what was coming now, Nightmare covered her ears. A white cloud of magic surrounded the pegasus as she flew ever faster, descending on the thundery clouds below her.

A huge booming noise then echoed through all of Ponyville as the famous Sonic Rainboom was executed perfectly. The rainbow pierced every single cloud, and finally the golden light of the sun shone through to the small town. "Whoa…" said Thunder. "Hmm. Nice," said Nightmare with a groan. After she finished the cloud busting Rainbow flew over to Thunder and asked, "How was that? I told ya, I've been doing this for a while." "It was superultraepicawesomazing!" said Thunder, making up a word for lack of a description. "I never did get your name, kid…" said Rainbow, changing the topic and searching her memory as she brushed the black cloud bits off her hooves. "Thunder Cloud!" said Thunder, "Whoa, I'm meeting so many awesome ponies today! First I meet Sun Rider, then I meet Nightmare Moon, then you! This is awesome!" "**Who**'d you meet first?" asked Rainbow cocking her head to the side. "Sun Rider! She and her friends saved Ponyville!" said Thunder. "Hey!" Rainbow said, jokingly, "That's my job!" They both giggled.


	14. Parties (Good or Bad? Depends)

Fluttershy woke that morning in her cottage, it was quite late, though. It was around noon, which was late even for her. She immediately got to feeding her animals, after she was finished with that she took some time to soak in the daylight. After three days of nighttime with not even as much as a moon… Not that she minded, of course, but she was happy to see the sun again, even despite the fact that it bore the images of Celestia and Twilight on it.

As Fluttershy went to get some food for Angel bunny, she realized that there was a huge party being thrown in Ponyville. As the canary pegasus trotted into town, she saw a huge, pink banner hung across the entrance to town that said, "NIGHTMARE PARTY" in huge, capital letters. She saw a ton of ponies dressed in black, black dresses, black shoes, black shirts, and black scarves… black everything! Then a pink pony dressed in a black jumpsuit bounced to the edge of town to greet Fluttershy.

"Oh…" said Fluttershy, quietly, "Hi, Pinkie…" "HI, FLUTTERSHY!" Pinkie said, rather loudly, then she stopped bouncing and handed Fluttershy a black cap and a black sweater. "For… me?" asked Fluttershy. "Yesserooni!" said Pinkie Pie, "You coming for the Nightmare Party? It's a blast! Everypony's celebrating how Nightmare saved Ponyville and all that other stuff! It doubles as a cutie-ceańera for a friend of Dashie's! Her name is Thunder Cloud, wanna see her?!" Fluttershy walked along with Pinkie, not bothering to answer given anything she could say would be taken as a yes. Pinkie bounced along the streets to the town hall, one of the few buildings that remained standing. Around it there was another large bunch of black ribbons, streamers and silky banners, all saying something to the extent of what the first one had said. Pinkie burst open the doors and screamed at the top of her lungs, "LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"

Nightmare Moon was there, her ribs had healed but her wing was in a cast. It had been signed by just about every pony in town, though, so Nightmare was happy. Sun and Sunset, along with Moon and Morning, were dancing together toward the middle of the room. It looked like a sea of black, small spots of color on flanks and heads poked out from the blackness. It was a cheerful black, though, and soon the cake was brought in. It, of course, was black. The icing was dark blue and it had little, edible candy pearls that looked like stars, carefully adorned into constellations onto the sides of the cake. Nightmare was astounded when the four-layered cake came out, she couldn't wait to taste it. "Back, everypony!" shouted Pinkie, guarding the cake, "Nightmare gets the first piece!"

"No need!" said Nightmare, using her magic to cut the cake into 57 equal pieces. That was the exact number of residents in Ponyville at the moment, according to Pinkie Pie herself. "OOH!" exclaimed Pinkie, "I forgot you could do that!" Nightmare simply nodded. A gigantic slice of cake was passed on, not dinner plates, but four-foot-long trays, to each pony. Then Nightmare took a slice herself. Before everypony dug into the cake, though, a young mare said, "I propose a toast!" Everypony was sitting at a set of gigantic tables, when the gray pony stood up on her seat. But before she could say anything, a light gray pony with a dark blue mane stood up and said, "I propose a toast to Nightmare Moon, for saving Ponyville from those constellation things!" Then the other mare said, "And I propose a toast to Sun Rider, Sunset Sky, Morning Ice, and Moon Pool for saving us from the Ursa Major!" Then Pinkie Pie stood up and yelled happily, "And I propose a toast to actually eating sometime soon!" A huge burst of laughter erupted from the crowd and everypony dug into their cake and punch.

After the party, everypony helped clean up… everypony but one. Rainbow Dash flew out an open window in one of the higher levels. She flew down to the Everfree Forest, if she wasn't trying to find somepony she'd have gone there anyways just to be alone. She landed in the clearing near Zecora's house, she knew the zebra would have some insight on this. "Zecora?" asked Rainbow, peering inside. The zebra was nowhere to be found. "Eh…" Rainbow said, taking off, "She's probably collecting herbs or something… I'll come back later."

~4 hours earlier, at the start of the party, in the Ponyville outskirts

"Those Ponyville FREAKS!" A dark gray unicorn stallion, hiding in the bushes outside of Ponyville by the name of Stormy Night had said it under his breath, referring to the party for Nightmare. "Our queen must be evil…" he said, putting significant emphasis on the last word. Suddenly he had a wonderful idea. An awful idea. If there is such a thing, a wonderfully awful idea. Stormy jotted a few notes onto his notepad. A few of the words were, "More shards" and "Evil potion", as well as and most importantly…

"Alicorn Amulet".


	15. Pretty Mental

"Thanks, everypony! Come again!" exclaimed Pinkie to the ponies leaving the party. Just as Spike was leaving, Pinkie asked him, "Hey, Spike? Where's Dashie? I've been looking for her everywhere!" Contemplating the subject a bit, Spike said, "I don't know, Pinkie… I didn't see her at the Clean-Up After-Party Party, so I'm not sure! By the way, the idea of a party made for cleaning up the last one is a great idea! Although, it was a little odd…" "Oh, THANK YOU!" said Pinkie, giving Spike a huge hug, "I've never had the honoraries of being called 'odd' before! THANKS!" Then Pinkie bounced out the door. Checking his scales to make sure they were all right after the colossal hug, Spike shrugged and sighed, "There's Pinkie for you…" Then he walked out of the Town Hall himself, to try and find the library in all this mess of a town.

After everypony else had left, only Sun and Sunset were left there. Sun flew out, and left Sunset standing there. "Ya coming, Sunset?" asked Sun from the doorway. "Uh… Yeah," said Sunset, trotting out. Sun flew over to Sunset, she said, "What's wrong?" and tilted her head to the side. "…Nothing," said Sunset, turning away and trotting out. Sun sighed, something must be wrong but she didn't know what, and it irritated her to no end. But there would be no pressing the subject now, mares will be mares after all, and she flew out to trot alongside Sunset. "We've got no place to stay here, though," commented Sun. "I know," said Sunset, sighing. She spotted a large tree house, it seemed to have a door on the side and it had a sign next to it with a book carved and painted onto it. "Look over there," said Sunset, "I wonder if we can stay there…" "I don't know," said Sun, "But we can always ask!" They went into a full gallop and once they got there, Sunset knocked on the door.

A small, green dragon opened the door and said, "Hey… Uh… How may I help you?" "Are you open?" asked Sunset gently. "Yeah," said Spike, then upon looking closer he saw the Elements around their necks. "Wait a second!" Spike exclaimed, "You're those ponies who saved us from the Ursa Major!" Sunset nodded sheepishly. "Well then…" said Spike, "Come on in, before it gets dark!" "Whoa," said Sun, looking at all the books. She wasn't a huge reader, but she liked the occasional adventure novel when she was bored. Sunset was already levitating books around, browsing. If either had been paying any attention, they would have seen Spike trying to hide his sadness over Twilight's disappearance, failing, and going up to bed despite the fact that it wasn't even dark yet.

"Here's a nice adventure novel!" exclaimed Sun, pulling the second Daring Do book off the shelf. "Daring Do and the Quest for the Griffon's Goblet!" she read off the cover, sitting in a chair and putting the book on the desk in front of her. "Want me to read it to you, Sunset?" asked Sun. Sunset simply shook her head. "…No thanks…" she said quietly, "I've found something." She pulled a book with a light pink cover off the shelf, and lay over on the floor opposite Sun. Sun looked over and shrugged, going back to reading her book silently.

After fifteen minutes or so, Sun heard a loud groan from Sunset, and a slamming noise as she slammed the book shut and levitated it back onto the shelf. "Now or never…" thought Sun, then she said gently, "What's REALLY wrong, Sunset?" Sun found the book Sunset had been reading, the only one with a bright pink cover on the entire shelf. "How to be a Proper Mare: getting everypony to think you're pretty?!" read Sun. She threw the book onto the floor where it made a soft thumping noise on the spongy, polished oak wood boards. "You don't need this!" exclaimed Sun, "And since when did you think you did?!" "Yes I do, and since two and a half hours ago," said Sunset.

Sun noticed that Sunset's colors were fading a bit, probably just a trick of light since it _was_ getting dark. Her usually scruffy, poofy and swept back mane was now over her right eye completely and much straighter (probably just the fact that she was sitting on the floor with her head down), and she was avoiding eye contact however she could. "What brought this on?" asked Sun. "At the party, when I was dancing, remember? Everypony was staring at me. I can't dance, I can't walk properly, and I can't talk properly. How am I going to manage to do anything if I can't conduct myself?!" screamed Sunset.

Taken aback by Sunset's sudden lack of poise, Sun jumped a bit. This wasn't like her friend at all. This wasn't Sunset, this was… something else. Sun shook her head and sighed. "You don't even approve of the way I act!" screeched Sunset. If the door to Spike's room hadn't been shut and locked, he'd have woken up a while ago. "Ssh…" said Sun, "I liked the way you acted before…" she gestured with her hooves, pointing at Sunset, "This." "You just gestured to all of me!" Sunset said, now more confused than she was anything else. Sun nodded, sweeping Sunset's mane out of her face, "You need to stop being all of you, and start being the you that I knew before!"

"Am I pretty?" Sunset asked sheepishly.

"No…" said Sun.

"Do you… want to be with me forever?"

"No…"

"Would you cry if I walked away?"

"No…"

"Then I do too need to learn how to be pretty!" said Sunset, tears streaking down her face and her mane back over it, plastered to her cheek. She turned abruptly, almost whipping Sun with her tail. Sunset was just about to walk off, but then she felt a gentle tug on her tail. She turned around, it was Sun.

Sun said, "You're not pretty, you're beautiful. I don't want to be with you forever, I NEED to be with you forever. And I wouldn't cry if you walked away, I would DIE. I don't give a single ounce buck how everypony else sees you, you're special to ME." Sun swept Sunset's mane back into place, smoothing it out. "You…" said Sunset. Sun put a hoof to Sunset's mouth, and she said, "Yes. Now I have a question for you, Sunset."

Sunset wiped away a few tears, mussed her mane and said gently, "Shoot."

"Will you be my marefriend?"

Sunset leaned over and whispered, but it was perfectly audible to Sun. "Yes," she said.


	16. Alicorn Thingy

Sun and Sunset made a fort of books to sleep in, they found the perfectly kept pages quite comfy as pillows and soon they were asleep. When they awoke the next morning and put the books back, they wondered where Nightmare Moon would have gone. "Sunset?" asked Sun, "Want me to fly over Ponyville and give the town a look-see?" Sunset nodded, and within the blink of an eye Sun was out the door and off the ground altogether.

Sun flew over the edge of Ponyville and started flying straight towards the Town Hall. She passed Sugarcube Corner, the world-renowned bakery where Pinkie Pie worked and catered for all kinds of parties. She flew over a whole bunch of houses and into the town square, she passed all kinds of shops selling all kinds of things, apples and strawberries and cherries and celery. Sun only had a brief moment to take in the smells of all that stuff when she flew toward the other end of Ponyville. She passed a ton of houses and had to dodge a nearby clock tower. But all the streets of the tiny, rural town were visible from this route, and she hadn't seen Nightmare on any of them. She knew that she couldn't have gotten back to Ponyville, teleportation is a much harder thing to do than simple levitation of oneself or even raising of the sun (when the sun is willing to be raised, that is).

Sun then remembered that there was another section of Ponyville, a much more rural section near the Everfree Forest, past Sweet Apple Acres and a few miles due west. So she flew there. In five minutes or so, she was at the only house there that wasn't abandoned, Fluttershy's cottage. Sun landed, and she knocked on the wooden door. In a few seconds she heard hoofsteps, then the door creaked a little as a canary pegasus pony with a long, light magenta mane opened the door. "Hello?" asked Fluttershy quietly. "Have you seen Nightmare Moon lately?" asked Sun. "No… I haven't…" Fluttershy said, swinging her forehoof back and forth. "But these two showed up quite late last night and…" said Fluttershy, turning around and beckoning for the two ponies inside to come to the door. A white pegasus mare with a dark blue mane and a bright yellow unicorn mare with a horn that just poked out of her fiery red mane came to the door. "Sun!" exclaimed Moon Pool, running up to hug her twin sister. "Hey, Moon," said Sun, returning the hug. "Moon and I came here after the party…" said Morning Ice.

"We went to the library and slept there, Princess Twilight's assistant Spike let us stay there for the night," said Sun, "Sunset's back at the library. Want to go back there with me?" "It's a few miles journey," said Morning worriedly, "That's a few minutes by wing but an hour or so by hoof. I'll stay here…" "No, you won't!" said Sun, "I'll carry you! Get on my back, and I'll get us there just fine." "You sure you can handle my weight?" asked Morning worriedly. "Is the sky blue?" asked Sun rhetorically. Then they all took off, Fluttershy included, as she wanted to ensure a safe journey across Ponyville for her guests and their friends and sisters. They flew all the way across Ponyville in around five minutes, and once they landed near the library Sun knocked on the door. Sunset opened the door a crack, it was still dark out and she didn't know how Sun had been able to see, but she checked for who was there and once she saw it was Sun, she opened the door a bit more. This revealed Morning Ice and Moon Pool standing at the door as well, Morning having gotten off of Sun's back once they landed. "Oh, hi, Morning! Hi, Moon! Nice to see you! Where were you?" Sunset exclaimed, ushering them in. "We were at my cottage…" said Fluttershy, being the last to walk in and gently close the door. "Nice!" exclaimed Sunset. "How'd you…" she said, gesturing to Morning, who then pointed to Sun. "You carried her?!" exclaimed Sunset, apparently not getting enough shock from this. Sun nodded and said, "Yep!"

At that very moment they heard a voice from the other side. "Hey, what's with the crowd?!" asked Spike, walking down the stairs. "These are my best friends," said Sun. "Sunset Sky was here last night, you remember her," she gestured to Sunset, who waved. "These are my other friends, Morning Ice and Moon Pool, Moon's my twin sister and Morning is Moon's friend. So I guess that Morning is my friend-in-law or something like that…" Everyone giggled a bit, then Spike said, "Well, I'll make breakfast for everypony. Come on into the kitchen, we've got a few spare chairs around here someplace."

Spike went about making daisy sandwiches for everypony, and the four ponies sat around the table and chatted a bit. "I've been wondering lately," said Sunset, "Where are Wind Rider and Wave Pool? They were with Nightmare Moon earlier…" "So that begs the question, where'd Nightmare Moon go?" asked Moon. "I don't know…" said Morning. "Me neither!" exclaimed Sun. Suddenly, before anypony could say anything else, there was a rapid and incredibly hard knock at the door. Spike went to get it, but Pinkie Pie burst through the door before anything could have happened otherwise. Wide-eyed, Pinkie shouted, "Nightmare Moon! Gone! Ponies took her! Alicorn Thingy! Two other ponies with her! They're gone too! Worst of all, spy pony got away before I could catch him!"

"Spy Pony? Alicorn thingy? What?!" exclaimed Sun. "Slow down, Pinkie. Tell us what happened," said Moon to her, all of them having gone into the main room with her. "There was a spy pony and I tracked him down but he got away and all I heard from him was that Nightmare Moon and two other ponies named Wind Rider and Wave Pool got captured along with her and they're gonna use an alicorn thingy on Nightmare Moon to make her evil and then the spy pony got away!" exclaimed Pinkie, all in one breath.

"So," said Sun, "You're telling us that my parents were captured… along with Nightmare… and they plan to use an 'alicorn thingy'… wait. I think I remember that name, it was a legend from a long time ago about a trinket called… um…" She couldn't put a hoof on the name, though. "Alicorn Amulet," said a voice from the window. Then a sky blue pegasus pony with a rainbow colored mane flew in. "I know all about it, Trixie used it when she tried to defeat Twilight," said Rainbow, pausing and swallowing hard when she said her friend's name, "in a magic duel. It was put in Zecora's hut for safe-keeping, but I recently went over there and found out that Zecora wasn't there. I know where she put the amulet, too, and the spot where it was is completely empty." "Oh!" exclaimed Pinkie, "I've got it now! So…" she gasped, took a single, gigantic breath and said,

"Twilight was trapped on the sun by Nightmare Moon and Twilight is a really good friend of yours so you wanted to get her back but since they took Nightmare and she's the only pony who knows the spell who's not banished already and they also took those other two ponies while they had the Elements on them that means that not only Equestria is without one of its biggest means of defense, it's without ALL of its biggest means of defense because all the princesses and princes are GONE!" Pinkie took a huge breath and then sighed and said, "Right?" "Pretty much," said Rainbow Dash, apparently being used to Pinkie's blabbering at the speed of sound. "How do you understand that? I only made out every other word," said Sunset. "Come on," said Rainbow, sighing and rolling her eyes, "I can fly a lot faster than she talks. Besides… she's my friend. You get used to it." Then she took off, carrying all of them regardless of the fact that Sun was a pegasus.

"Uh…" said Sunset, once they'd reached a considerable speed, "Shouldn't we slow down?" "Nah," said Pinkie Pie, who was the one Sun and Sunset were holding onto while they were all clutching Dash's back mane, "Dashie is a big believer in my philosophy. Time is candy, remember?" Looking back, Sun saw the trail behind Rainbow. "We're approaching Rainboom speeds!" exclaimed Sun, "We'll fly off if you do that!" "Actually," said Rainbow, "That just gave me an idea. Hold on tight. And I mean really tight. You guys are gonna have to be REALLY aerodynamic if this is gonna work." "Do you know where we're going?" asked Sun. "Yep," said Rainbow, "Besides, we're gonna have to make up a lot of time if we're gonna catch these ponies. I would go for a double rainboom if I was doing this alone… but since you're here, the speed of sound itself should suffice. Everypony, hold on tight."

As the field of white surrounded Dash's front hooves, she felt the familiar burning feeling in the tips of her hooves. Other than maintaining her form, she didn't have to do much except flap once and a while. "At this stage, it's like flying through cake mix if you don't have good form. Hint, hint, Pinkie, keep your mane under control." "Got it, Dashie!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "Mane, you heard your Commanding Officer, stay in attention for the remainder of the flight!" The little tip on her forelock made a tiny salute, then it plastered itself to her forehead.

The field grew into a more pointed, parabolic shape as Dash flew even faster. The others clung on for dear life, and Dash herself was going into this like meeting an old friend, she closed her eyes gently and flew up into the clouds, making a double loop-the-loop and going straight down. "Come on, Dash…" she said, not that anypony could hear her over the wind, and it wasn't anxious or hurried but simply a calm phrase. She gave the whole world a gentle smile, and though the rainboom was a huge shock to everypony else Dash didn't bother answering the array of questions and simply thought to herself, "I knew you had it in you, Dash."

Drawing a rainbow across most of Equestria, Rainbow Dash landed in the Crystal Empire. As they walked up to the palace, Dash asked, "Do you know about the Corruption Entrance?" "The what?" they asked. Dash sighed, then she said again, "The Corruption Entrance. You know… the nightmare door? In the basement of the Crystal Palace?" A desynchronized stream of Oh's came from the rest. "But…" said Sunset, "You can't use dark magic! You're not even a unicorn! I'm the only unicorn here… and I have no idea what it is beyond the very basics!" Dash sighed and muttered to herself, "Oh, perfect. Great job, Dash, bring along a unicorn who doesn't know a single thing about dark magic!"

"Um…" said Pinkie Pie, "You do know that you can't just bust through the crystal in the palace… that it's magically fortified, right? And that the ponies there are… already…" But the others had already gone inside, and Pinkie shrugged and started bouncing around the Crystal Empire. "I guess I'll wait until they're done," she thought, "Ooh! Crystal Corn on the Cob!"

They walked inside the palace. It was completely deserted, but they assumed that nopony was worried because it had only been a week since Cadence even left, and she said she wasn't going to be back for a while. "I was assuming somepony here would know a bit about dark magic, but since they don't," said Dash, smoothing her wings' feathers and folding and unfolding them while she spoke, "I guess I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way."

"The old fashioned way?" asked Sun, "What's that?" "Well," said Rainbow, "The thing is a few miles underground. A sufficiently advanced unicorn in any magic, or a basic-level unicorn in dark magic, can teleport the place to only a few feet underground and remove the last layer of dirt and stone. Teleportation of huge objects, contrary to light magic, is very easy in dark magic. But nopony cares about that, because I'm gonna go and bust through all that rock and stuff. We've got to go quick, hence the rainboom coming here which saved a tiny bit of time, the Lunar Republic is holding them down there. They're gonna torture them with the nightmare door thing until Nightmare puts on the Alicorn Amulet." "I know a tiny bit," said Sunset, "But I can only get this thing halfway. Without the ponies down there noticing, that is. That'll help a bit, Rainbow… So I'll do it."

Sunset went over to the edge of where she knew the staircase started, and she stood there to begin her spell. She thought of everything that had ever happened to her and brought out the bad things. Holding back tears, Sunset tensed everything and then stared straight ahead, her eyes green with a purple smoky haze coming out of the outsides of them. Rainbow Dash stood there with a sarcastic, mock-quizzical look. Sun was intensely worried but was keeping it under control, and she simply stared at Sunset.

There was a deep grinding noise as the spell was cast, then it suddenly stopped and Sunset slumped down onto the floor, crying softly. Sun flew faster than Rainbow Dash did over to Sunset, and she helped her friend up. "It's okay," said Sun, "It's over now." "Impressive job, kid," said Dash, "This makes my job all that much easier. Still… I think there's still a large amount of rock there. Then she flew to the tip-top of the spire, accelerating as much as she could. And then…

It was over in a single instant, the rainboom echoed through the palace, but after the crystal dust cleared…

Nothing. Dash was slumped over on the floor, but there wasn't a single dent in the crystalline floor. The only thing she'd made a dent in was the dust. "Listen," said Sunset sincerely, "I've got another type of magic in my repertoire." "What kind?" asked Sun, "I only knew of Light and Dark! What's the third?" Sunset sighed, then she said, "Shadow Magic."


	17. Shadow Magic

"What's that?" asked Sun. "Well, you know how Light and Dark magic feed off of your magic reservoir as well as your emotions, Light feeds off happiness and good feelings whereas Dark feeds off sadness and bad feelings?" said Sunset, "Well, there's another magic type that can be cast without a magic reservoir at all… I read about Nightmare Moon using it (after figuring out it existed) in the Last Lunar War. It feeds off pure anger… and although it doesn't make the user tired it can slowly drive them insane."

"You're sacrificing your sanity to help Nightmare?" asked Sun, "That's crazy!" "It's what your mom would do, is it not? I admire her loyalty… and I want to try," said Sunset, having made up her mind. "Well," said Sun, "I may not be the most loyal pony… that award would go to Rainbow Dash here… but I'm coming with you. Is it possible to tap others' emotions for this kind of spell?" "Emotions aren't magic reservoirs, Sun. There's literally nothing you can do," said Sunset, "Except let me concentrate."

Shamefully admitting the fact that she could do nothing to help her marefriend, Sun walked over to sit about twenty feet away near Rainbow Dash. "Sometimes you've just got to let your friends do the work themselves," said Dash quietly in Sun's ear. "Yeah," Sun whispered back, "I guess you're right." Meanwhile, Sunset was sitting next to the entrance, when her expression changed from casual to a deep scowl. What Sun and Rainbow saw of her eyes were glowing black, if that's even possible. Her horn was illuminated with five or six auras of dark gray, and her hair was flying out behind her as if she was in a hurricane. Sunset didn't blink at all and as her tears turned to steam and lifted slightly off the ground in a prism of blue light. Her mane became perfectly straight, losing all of its previous poofiness, and one couldn't even imagine what was in her head at that moment. And when she landed back on the ground, Sun could have sworn that Sunset had grown several inches.

Sunset's eyes were still glowing with the blackish haze, and her hair was perfectly flat and straight. Her forelock was over one eye, but the other was twisted into a look of hate and malice. "Sunset?" asked Sun quietly, "Are you okay?"

"No," said Sunset lowly, her voice having dropped two octaves in pitch. She would have sounded like a stallion had it not been for her almost quizzical mockery, as if she were talking to a couple of swine. "Can I help?" asked Sun. Taking a moment to sweep her forelock out of her face and behind her ear, Sunset put on a smile that should have been physically impossible, so much she couldn't fully keep her eyes open. Her pupils dilated so much that they were no larger than peas, and she tilted her head up into the bright light of the crystal palace to create a hallowed look around her eyes. "I'm not okay…" she said slowly, never stopping her gigantic smile.

Suddenly the rock crumbled away mere feet from Sunset's insane form, but she didn't jump. "Ah," she said, "Right on schedule."

"There's the staircase that Twilight," Rainbow Dash said, still a bit choked up at mentioning her banished friend, "found while we were having that crystal fair a few years back… She told me that the Corruption Entrance is down here. Well, let's go, everypony. Hey, Sun? Since Sunset isn't exactly… normal…" she looked over at Sunset, standing there with an evil look on her face but not moving at all, "Do you remember the Cloudsdale Academy Final Exam? You know the one with the three-second freefall?" Sun nodded, she'd been sent to Cloudsdale Academy and passed her final. Most ponies did, after all. "Well, we're going to do a one-minute freefall," said Dash, "To the bottom of that thing. We would have Sunset teleport the two of you, but she's not exactly sane right now. Oh, and don't worry about your marefriend… She'll be fine in a little while." Without bothering to ask how Rainbow Dash knew about their relationship, Sun nodded, but then she doubled back and said, "There's no room to fly at the bottom! We'd break our wings off!" "Nope!" said Dash. "Why not?" asked Sun, "I thought wings were sort of required." "They are," said Dash, "But just follow my lead, copy my exact maneuvers. You'll be _fine_!"

And with that, Rainbow Dash flew over the hole, motioning for Sun to come with. Sun desperately tried to shake the image of Sunset out of her mind, and she followed Dash. "Okay, squirt," Dash said, hovering beside Sun, "Follow my lead." Then Dash folded her wings and started falling. Sun did the same. Sun looked at Dash the entire time, to see what she would be doing. She was quite confident that Dash wasn't suicidal. Then Dash opened her wings, but only about halfway and they fluttered in the significant wind. "We won't reach terminal velocity here," shouted Dash, "So there's no danger of hurting the wing-joints if we only unfold them halfway!" "Won't the ponies hear us?" asked Sun. "Nope!" Dash shouted back, slowly unfolding her wings all the way and letting them flap in front of her, "We're still too far up!"

After about thirty seconds of freefall, they'd hit terminal velocity and Rainbow instructed Sun, quietly as so the ponies wouldn't hear them, "We're going to do a full 180 and a spin, so we're stomach down. Then we're going to do a few perfect-circle loops to slow down a bit, using our wings only to glide. Most important part: don't flap." "You know a bit about flying, don't you?" said Sun, impressed. "You could say that," said Dash with a distinct lack of her usual brashness, then she got it back as she said, "Now, follow my lead." Sun followed Rainbow Dash as she completed the complex flight maneuvers, with slightly less flow than the best flier in Equestria, but who's to be blamed for that.

Sun followed Dash as she completed one… two… …fifteen… perfect, circular loops. Although she still had her rainbow trail, Dash was apparently making a considerable effort NOT to rainboom. And although she was a pretty good, fast flier, Sun was making a considerable effort to keep up with Dash. "Ssh!" Dash hissed quietly as they descended. Sun made a silent nod, looking back for a moment to notice Dash's rainbow trail was dissipating, and this was obviously because the pegasus was slowing down, exponentially. Sun slowed her speed considerably as well, trying and succeeding to not make any noise.

~5 minutes earlier, at the bottom of the Crystal Chamber near the Corruption Entrance

A black bag was pulled off of Nightmare Moon's head, and she blinked in the sudden light. The light, of course, was an illumination spell cast by one of the Lunar Republic guard unicorns, casting a white glow around the bottom 10 feet or so of the Crystal Chamber. The rest was in complete darkness. "Where am I?" asked Nightmare Moon before she became focused on where she was, then she saw the ponies around her and said, "Um… I mean…" "No more pretending, Nightmare Moon," said a mare, she had a cutie mark of a series of spirals and shapes Nightmare didn't understand. Her coat was a light cyan; her mane was pure and silky black and covered one of her light purple eyes. "Who are you?" "My name is Ancient Rune, but that's not important. I am one of the highest-ranking in your royal guard," said Rune. She gave Nightmare a smug look and said, "And we're going to use this," she pointed over at the door, the only door there, "To make you cooperate." Nightmare tried to power up the magic required for a teleportation spell, but she lacked the magic reservoir. Actually, hers was tapped dry. "Did I forget to mention we fully tapped out your magic reservoir before we woke you up?" asked Rune with a grin, "Now. Where were we? Oh, yes. We want you to try on a necklace. Nothing special, just a necklace… and then you are free to go wherever you please."

The 'necklace' that Rune pulled out with her magic had a rather interesting charm on it. It had a symbolized alicorn on the top, and a ruby-like gem in the center of it. "That's all you want me to do?" asked Nightmare, confused, "Try on a necklace? Sure, I'd be happy to!" "I have to warn you, though, this necklace makes you much more powerful… so use it carefully, okay?" said Rune, pretending (convincingly, I might add) to be worried for Nightmare. "I will," said Nightmare, smiling. She grabbed the 'necklace' in her hooves and fastened the black chain around her neck. "See?" said Nightmare, "It… fits…" Nightmare couldn't finish her sentence, for in that instant her eyes turned from turquoise to a bright, glowing red. She began to wear an expression of true anger, and now that she was tapping out of the amulet's magic reservoir and not her own, she instantly shot an explosive beam of red magic to where Rune was standing. "Whoa, there," Rune said to Nightmare, bowing respectively, "We're on the same side!" Then everypony else bowed. Suddenly, they heard a slight, whispering noise.

Meanwhile, Sun and Rainbow had been hovering above for only a few seconds. "Nightmare's already put on the amulet," whispered Rainbow, concerned and scared. "Let's high-tail it out of here!" whisper-shouted Sun. Suddenly, they found themselves in the midst of a red, magical aura. "Hello, _girls_…" said Nightmare smugly, "Welcome to your worst… _Nightmare_…" Then, all of a sudden, a little, gray zipper came out of nowhere. "Oh, hi, there!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. Everypony else, confused and shocked, stood there, paralyzed. "I've been looking for you all over!" Pinkie continued, "Oh, hi, Nightmare. Nice looking necklace you got there! Well, Sun and Rainbow and I had best be going!" Then she pulled them into the little hole and zipped up the zipper. Immediately afterwards, the zipper disappeared. "What… just… happened?!" exclaimed Nightmare, her eyes flashing a bright red.

Meanwhile…

"Phew! That was a close one!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she zipped up the fourth-wall, portal-entrance thing. "How…" said Sun. "Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie!" said Rainbow Dash, "And once you know her long enough… you don't question it. 'Break fourth wall' is what she calls it, and the rest of us don't even know what wall she's talking about!" "Oh, and by the way," said Pinkie, "A little clue for the audience… this subplot is going to go on for a few more chapters. You know… the insane Nightmare Moon arc. I heard from the author that she wants to explain things a bit more…" "Pinkie!" said Rainbow, "Now even _I_ don't know what you're talking about!" "Oh," said Pinkie, "Well it says here on the script that Sun's going to say kinda soon, 'Well, I don't know what this is all about, but we should get going soon'." "What script?!" asked Sun.

"Well, anyways," said Rainbow Dash, trying to brush off the extensive 'breaking of the fourth wall' or whatever that was. "Well, I don't know what this is all about, but we should get going soon…" said Sun, "Wait… Pinkie Pie! How'd you know I was going to say that?!" "Say what, Sunny?" asked Pinkie Pie. Sun facehoofed and said, "Never mind."

"Sunset?" said Sun, looking around the Crystal Palace. "SUNSET!" exclaimed Pinkie. Rainbow Dash was... well… dashing. Specifically, she was dashing around the Crystal Empire, trying to find Sunset. "Her magic reservoir was full last time," said Dash, not exactly knowing too much outside of what Twilight had told her, "So she could have teleported. Where's the last place you completely remember being, Sun? You know, while Sunset was with you?" "Canterlot Castle," replied Sun. "One last question for you, kiddo," said Dash, putting on a brash look, "Can you do a sonic rainboom?" "Dunno…" said Sun brashly, "But I can try."

"Pinkie Pie? Can you… uh… fourth wall break or whatever to get there?" asked Rainbow. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "But I'd be breaking the time-space continuum, not the fourth wall." "Okay, Pinkie," said Rainbow, "Meet ya there!" "Absolutely-tootly!" exclaimed Pinkie. Rainbow turned around and said to Sun, "Let's go, kiddo. We've got some serious flying to do if we're gonna catch up to Pinkie and her breaking of the time-space whatever-the-buck." "You betcha!" exclaimed Sun.

"Mommy! Can I get some daisy seeds to grow in my garden?" asked a little green unicorn filly with a red and blue mane by the name of Green Leaves. "Only if you pay for it," said her mother. "Aw…" said the filly. "Hey," said another filly, slightly older, "I'll spot you some bits." "Thanks, Math! You're the best!" exclaimed Green, jumping up and down. "Let's see… you're gonna need five for the daisies, seven and a half for the lilies, and fifteen more for that bucket-full of roses…" said Green's sister, an orange unicorn with a dark brown mane by the name of Mathematical Equations, "That'll sum up to 27 ½ bits. Here ya go!" "Whoa!" exclaimed Green. "They don't call me Math for nothing!" exclaimed Math. "No… I mean… look up!" There was a rainbow streaking across the sky, a sky blue pegasus at the lead of it. Then, only shortly behind her was a white pegasus with a bright red mane creating a blazing trail across the sky. "Whoa is right," said Math, "I wonder who they are…"

"Great job, kid!" mouthed Rainbow, since they were over the speed of sound nopony could hear them. "Thanks," Sun mouthed back, "You're doing great too!" Rainbow simply rolled her eyes, conveying an 'I do this all the time' sort of message. Rainbow nodded, and Sun looked straight ahead and saw the Canterlot Mountain Range coming up ahead. They started slowing down with a few loops, and then they used their wings as parachutes to land on the top of the Canterlot Tower. They then did a couple awesome roof-sliding-down things, and then they landed (for real this time) in the middle of the City Square. "Your sunboom was great, by the way," said Rainbow Dash. "Thanks;" said Sun, "Your rainboom was great, too." "Pish-posh," said Dash, "I do that all the time. I've been working on my double rainboom, and if we weren't in such a hurry I'd show you. But currently we've got to devise a strategy to get that _thing_ off of Nightmare. And if there's anything Twilight taught me, it's that everything can be found with a good mind and a good book. And good friends help, too."

They went inside Canterlot Public Library, and Rainbow started flying around and looking for a book on the Alicorn Amulet. "Amulets and Enchantments: Book 1," said Rainbow. She started flipping through it, her extensive reading of Daring Do stories had sped up her reading time significantly. "Nope," she said. She picked up the next book, flipped through it, and tossed it over her shoulder with another "Nope." This went on with books 1-5, then she opened book 6 to the last page and she found it. "The Alicorn Amulet," read Dash aloud, Sun flew up to listen. "The most terrible and rare of all known amulets. The last known place the amulet was is in the Everfree forest," continued Dash, "Well, we know it's not there."

"Go on," said Sun. Dash continued reading, "This amulet is known to corrupt the user. Only the pony that will be using it can put it on, and only the pony who had been wearing it can take it off." "Wow," said Sun, "Picky amulet." "The last time somepony was tricked into taking it off; the other pony convinced the pony wearing the amulet that they had a better amulet. That convinced the pony wearing it; consumed by greed for power, to take off her amulet and put on the fake one," read Dash, "However, anypony wearing this amulet has no control over their emotions. The amulet itself has its own magic reservoir, which makes the unicorn wearing it much better at spells. A unicorn wearing this amulet will be corrupted by it; the amulet slowly and steadily rots away the unicorn's mind. Although the origins of this amulet are unknown, it is recommended that, unless you want to watch the world burn (literally is actually possible), you should not seek out this amulet. And nopony should, under any circumstances, try it on." "Well then," said Sun, "Let's try and see the good in this, shall we?" "For the exception of the fact that there isn't any," said Rainbow with significant irritation.

"Maybe there's a little, teensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy, little-tiny bit of good in this!" exclaimed a bubbly voice. "Pinkie Pie?" asked Rainbow. "Yesserooni!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, bouncing in the door, "And I brought along a friend, too! Sun, you're probably gonna recognize her…" In walked Sunset, her eyes and mane returned to normal, and as she put the books Rainbow had dropped back on the shelves they realized her horn aura was back to normal as well. "Hi, Sun…" said Sunset, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "SUNSET!" exclaimed Sun happily, picking her friend up off the ground and flying round in circles, "I've missed you so much!" A shy smile on her face, Sunset said, "I missed you too, Sun."

Sun bopped Sunset with her muzzle and said, "That's for scaring me." Then Sun gave her marefriend a quick kiss, and she said, "And that's for everything else." They landed back on the ground, and Rainbow Dash said, "Although you two are really cute, can we cut to the chase? We've got to find a way to help Nightmare!" "Oh yeah," said Sunset, "About that… I've got an idea."


	18. The Time-Space Whatchamacallit

"That pink earth pony… I vaguely remember her…" said Nightmare, venting her steam in the Crystal Palace to her guards. "I don't know what happened, your highness, but I think that she may have taken them through some medium of magic and had them escape. However, since she was an earth pony, this theory is still quite sketchy," said Rune. "I know, Rune," said Nightmare, her red eyes growing slightly dull as she contemplated, "But there really is no other way to explain it. The two others were clearly pegasi, so maybe that pink one was hiding a horn? Her mane was quite poofy…" "Your highness always comes up with the best theories," said Rune, "Is there anything I can bring you, by the way?" "No," said Nightmare, "Leave me to think."

"A bright pink earth pony…" said Nightmare to herself once Rune left, "I think I remember her… Her name's… um…" Nightmare scratched her head with her hoof, straightened her amulet and said, "Pinkie Pie! I remember… now…"

* * *

"Great idea, Sunset!" exclaimed Sun. "You're just saying that because you're my marefriend…" said Sunset. "It is actually a pretty good idea…" said Rainbow. "See?" said Sun. Sunset rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, you've got me. Now we just have to find out where Nightmare is…" "I think she'd be in the Crystal Empire, although with her kind of magic even without the amulet she could be anywhere," said Rainbow. "Well that kind of narrows it down to anywhere in Equestria…" said Sun. "Sorry," said Rainbow, "But I really don't know! Although… it is a pretty good bet that she's still there. You wanna know why?"

"Why?" asked Pinkie. "Well, it's because that…" said Rainbow, "Remember when we were down at the bottom of the Crystal Chamber? There were at least ten, maybe fifteen ponies in that chamber alone. There must be a lot more, as well. Now, if this amulet is anything like any other magic reservoir source, then it can be tapped out if not allowed time to replenish itself between massive spells. If she tried to teleport all those ponies at once, Nightmare would run a significant chance of tapping out not only her own magic reservoir but that of the amulet as well. Now, I don't think she's regained enough of her previous, natural insanity to want to sacrifice the smidgens of sanity she's got left using Shadow Magic, and the Nightmare I know doesn't know very much dark magic. But even if she did, Dark Magic usually deals with the moving around, appearance and disappearance of various, usually inanimate, large objects." "Well, look who's turned into Twilight…" said Pinkie Pie, "You know more about it than Rarity does, and you don't even have a horn!"

"You don't need to have a horn to know how magic works, Pinkie," said Rainbow, "And you of all ponies should know that, spending most of the day dabbling in the time-space whatchamacallit." "Continuum," Pinkie corrected. Rainbow nodded. "Although I like 'whatchamacallit' better. '_To the time-space whatchamacallit!'_ sounds way cool!" said Pinkie Pie with her usual exuberance, "Or maybe it should be called '_the time-space whoosy-whatsis!_' 'something-or-other'? Beats me…" "Personally," said Sun, "I like 'whoosy-whatsis' better." "Really?" asked Sunset, "I liked 'something-or-other'… I also liked 'whatchamacallit' too, though." "All right!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, "I get it! _**Continuum!**_" "Sheesh," said Pinkie Pie, "You don't have to yell at me. I was just poking fun."

"We have way too many ponies who are 'just poking fun'," said Rainbow sarcastically. "Anyways," said Sunset, "We're gonna have to wait until Nightmare comes back here… right?" Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded, saying, "As much as I hate to admit it, we're gonna have to wait this one out. However, we shouldn't have to wait too long, she does live in Canterlot after all."

"I've only got one question," said Sun, "Where are my parents? We didn't see them in the Crystal Chamber, so where could they be?" "You bring up a valid point, kid," said Rainbow, scratching her chin with her hoof, "I think your parents, along with Zecora, are someplace else entirely. I'm… just not sure where." "You've already eliminated everywhere in the Crystal Empire she could hide them…" said Sunset, "Except… …No. Just… no. That… it… can't…"

"What is it?" asked Sun. "It is possible… unlikely but possible… that Nightmare could have hidden them inside the Corruption Entrance," said Sunset, "But the only way to get them out would be to go in ourselves. That's subjecting everypony to an uncanny amount of pure Dark Energy… you know, what makes Dark Magic work. I don't know if we'd all be able to get out with our lives… and even if we manage that it'll be near impossible for all of us to be able to get out with our sanity."

"Is there really anyplace else they could be?" asked Sun. "Not really," said Sunset, shaking her head. "Well then," said Rainbow, "What are we waiting for?" "Wait a second…" said Pinkie, "Didn't you say that we'd have to wait until Nightie got back until we could carry out the awesome plan Sunset gave us, Dashie?" "No, Pinkie," said Rainbow, "Because I didn't take into account that these two's parents are still there, not to mention Zecora. That means that not only that Sunset's plan won't work if we wait here, because it involves having the Elements, but all of them would have been steadily being corrupted by the Corruption Entrance." "Oh…" said Pinkie, "So you're saying we've got to go BACK to the Crystal place? Okay, everypony, hold on to your hooves!"

For everypony but Pinkie, everything went white, and all they heard was Pinkie muttering various things as she pulled some things, they sounded like they were made of rubber, apart and back together. "Aha!" exclaimed Pinkie as she yanked one particular rubbery thing apart, and she said, "Come on, everypony, I found it!" When everypony else opened their eyes again, they were at the entrance to the Crystal Palace. Without questioning Pinkie's methods, they trotted quickly inside. The staircase was still open. "I'll go check it out," said Pinkie, unzipping a little zipper and jumping into a spinning, white and black vortex.

A few minutes later, the little zipper appeared again, unzipped itself, and Pinkie jumped out. "Nopony there," said Pinkie, "I wonder where they are." "The second level of the palace is a good bet," said Sunset, "come on, there's a staircase over here." Sunset gestured over to a place behind the throne, and upon further examination there was a door in the wall which led to a staircase. And with that, they all followed Sunset up the spiral staircase up to the second level.


	19. Sneak Attack

On the second level of the Palace, there was a long hallway with doors on all sides. However, Pinkie Pie somehow knew where Nightmare was. "She's in this room at the end of the hallway, guys!" exclaimed Pinkie, bouncing down the glittering hallway. Sure enough, at the end of the hallway, Rainbow flew up and put an eye to the peephole. "It's covered in something red," Rainbow said with a sigh, "I can't see anything." "What if it's…" said Pinkie, wide-eyed, her tendency to exaggerate the truth getting the best of her. "It's not blood, Pinkie," sighed Sun, "It's probably a red piece of paper or something." "Or a ruby," pointed out Sunset, "This entire place is pretty much made of crystal, anyways." "You make a good point," said Rainbow, trying the keyhole to see if she could see through there, "And the keyhole's blocked, too. Boy, these ponies have thought of everything."

Raising one eyebrow, Sunset walked up to the door and said, "Not quite everything." She cast a spell, and suddenly a mirror-like thing made of magic appeared on the door, making that specific section of the door completely translucent and transparent. "Great work, Sunset," said Sun, "I'm assuming this magic mirror thing is one-way?" Sunset nodded, "It's called a transparency spell. And yes, it only works one-way. Little bit of advanced magic I learned from the Princess's books. She has an expansive library, you know."

Looking through the transparency spell, they saw what was on the other side of the doorway: Nightmare sitting on a bed and talking to herself, writing various things on a scroll. Although they couldn't hear what she was saying, Pinkie said that it must be concerning her. Rainbow shrugged off this statement with a "whatever you say, Pinkie…", and they continued looking. Then Pinkie whisper-shouted, "Hide! And Sunset, cancel that spell thingy, Nightie is coming over here!" Quickly they looked around for someplace to hide, and then Sunset cancelled her transparency spell and cast an invisibility spell. "You. Are. GOOD," Sun whispered. "Thanks," said Sunset, "I'll explain how I know all this later. For now, be VERY quiet. This doesn't drown out any noise, nor does it make you unable to be touched, it simply makes you invisible."

Suddenly, the door opened, and Nightmare looked out. Maybe she'd seen a glimpse of them, or heard something from behind the door, because she opened the door quickly, looked around skeptically and waved her forehoof in various directions, then shrugged and went back inside. "Whew!" exclaimed Sun, quietly so Nightmare wouldn't hear her through the apparently quite thin door, "That was close!" "Yeah," said Rainbow Dash, "That _was_ close." "We should keep quiet from now on," whispered Sunset, barely loud enough for everypony to hear, as she undid the invisibility spell. "I think she's trying to figure out Pinkie's sudden appearance and disappearance, you know, back in the Crystal Chamber," whispered Rainbow. "You make a valid point," Sun whispered back, "However, I doubt she's going to find out how Pinkie did it, we're her friends and we don't even know how she did it." "I _told_ you guys already, I only momentarily stretched the time-space continuum," said Pinkie Pie, "But I kind of know that's not the point." "Exactly," whispered Sunset, "And keep your voice down."

"I don't want to tap out my magic reservoir," Sunset whispered, "It's not like I've got the magic required to cast that transparency spell again, and besides, I don't think there's much else we can get out of her. Not after what happened before… and what I assume is still happening. She's not doing anything useful to us, so let's get out of here." "Good idea," whispered Pinkie Pie, "But where's Dashie?" "Oh, she's probably still here," Sunset whispered back, "I just forgot to cast the counter-spell for the transparency…" Sunset trailed off. They all heard the distinct noise of a door creaking open. "She hasn't gone and done what I think she's gone and done, has she?" asked Pinkie in her roundabout way. "I… think she has, Pinkie…" Sunset said with a worried look, "I think she has gone and done exactly that."

Rainbow Dash opened the door to Nightmare's room just enough to slip inside, still remaining invisible, and she silently flew up to the ceiling. She saw Nightmare, sitting there on the couch, dotting things onto a piece of paper. Rainbow had left the door open just a crack, enough to slip through in a pinch, but not enough for it to be noticeable that the door was open. Rainbow flew behind Nightmare and watched what she was writing on the paper. In her mind, Rainbow read and quickly memorized what Nightmare had written down. She would have high-tailed it out of there, but her rainbow trail would have been visible. So she carefully, quietly, but as quickly as she could muster, flew out of the room. She slipped through the tiny crack in the doorway, and she closed it behind her, slowly.

CREEEAAAAKKKK….

The door creaked on its hinges and made a long, drawn-out, terrible noise, it was almost like hoof-tips on a chalkboard. Rainbow didn't stop to cover her ears, she simply flew out as fast as she possibly could. When Nightmare burst through the door, she saw a rainbow trail, rounding the bend, with no pony in front of it. "GUARDS!" she exclaimed. "Yes, your highness?" asked a black pegasus guard, having just arrived. "Get a team, search the castle. I want that rainbow streak found and captured and thrown in the dungeon!"

Minus sides of rainbooms: they leave a lasting trail behind the pony doing them. So Rainbow Dash was flying as fast as she possibly could WITHOUT doing a rainboom. "So far so good," she thought to herself, hoping her friends… her friends were…

Rainbow skidded to a stop mid-air. "Ugh! How could I have been such an idiot?!" she exclaimed to herself, smacking herself in the forehead with her hoof, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She flew all the way back to the castle, again making positively sure not to rainboom, for fear of getting caught. Rainbow searched all of the Crystal Empire, from top to bottom, still not finding anypony. "Maybe they could have teleported," she said to herself, "I'll have to go to Canterlot. They have to be there."

Once she made the half-hour journey to Canterlot, which really wasn't that far if you were as fast as Rainbow Dash, she searched the entire palace. "They've got to be here someplace," she thought, "I've just got to find them." While she was navigating through Canterlot, though, she rammed head-on into another pony. "Oh," she said, "I'm so sorry… I didn't see you there…" Her manners had really improved since the last time she crashed into somepony and landed on top of them. "It's okay…" said the pony, brushing off the dirt from her light blue coat and lighter blue mane and finally brushing the dust and dirt off her flank to reveal a cutie mark of a wand crossed with a moon. "Rainbow Dash?!" exclaimed Trixie. "Trixie?!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "What are you doing here?!" they exclaimed in unison. "I was buying some supplies for my next magic show!" said Trixie, still agitated but calming down. "I was searching for my best friends!" exclaimed Rainbow, not calming down in the slightest.

Suddenly they looked around, a few ponies had stopped what they were doing to watch this bizarre spectacle. "Oh, I mean…" said Rainbow, "Nice to see you again, Trixie. How're the shows going?" "Good, good," said Trixie, "I was just looking for some fireworks and stuff, wanna help me look?" "Absolutely," said Rainbow. By then the crowd had dissipated, and they were walking through Canterlot toward a fireworks shop. "Which of your numerous friends are you looking for, Rainbow?" asked Trixie, her manners having also improved significantly since the last time somepony had made a spectacle out of her. "Some you probably haven't heard of yet," said Rainbow, "Their names are Sun Rider and Sunset Sky… Also I'm looking for Pinkie Pie. She was there too." "I know Pinkie Pie," said Trixie, "As your friend I mean. But I only know Sun and Sunset from the papers… Equestria Daily posted a story on them… how they saved Ponyville and all that. Quite impressive if you ask me…" "Have you seen them anywhere?" asked Rainbow. "No, as a matter of fact I haven't," said Trixie, "ever for that matter. However, I wasn't exactly looking."

"I know," said Rainbow, "But you're right, it's not like they're stand-outs like me," she pointed to her rainbow mane. "True," said Trixie, "But if you can tell me what they look like, I would be happy to keep watch for you. I do know a telepathy spell, so I'll contact you if I see them." "Thanks, Trixie," said Rainbow, smiling. "You're welcome, 'Dashie'," said Trixie. "Please, I'd rather only one pony used that annoying nickname…" said Rainbow. "Okay, Rainbow. I was just kidding," said Trixie, waving. Then Rainbow set off for the only place they could possibly be… Ponyville.


	20. Home Again, Home Again

As Rainbow Dash arrived in Ponyville in the mid-afternoon, she contemplated briefly over how small Equestria seemed to be. But she didn't have much time to come to any conclusions; she had all of Ponyville to search. Firstly, she flew over the entire town, up and down every street and corridor, searching for them. Then she went inside Twilight's library, flew up the stairs, and there sitting on the bed was…

Applejack?

"Oh, hi, Rainbow…" said Applejack, climbing off Twilight's bed and walking over, "If you're lookin' for Pinkie, she just left." "Oh, thanks AJ…" said Rainbow, "But what are you doing here?" "The barn got destroyed by that Ursa," said Applejack, "And ah been sleepin' here for the past couple days." "Oh," said Rainbow, "I'm sorry about the barn…" "Hey, what's with you? Ya look all frantic and such…" said Applejack. "Just looking for Pinkie… also Sun and Sunset." "Oh, they were with Pinkie. She and them went over ta Sugarcube Corner ta get something to eat," said Applejack, "Ah was just goin' ta join 'em when ah finished makin' the beds." "Mind if I join them?" asked Rainbow, landing and walking beside AJ. "Not at all, Sugarcube," said Applejack, picking up the pace a little. "Oh, you're on," said Rainbow, dashing ahead and galloping toward Sugarcube Corner.

When they got to Sugarcube Corner (their little race tied), they saw Sun, Sunset and Pinkie sitting at a little round table near the opposite wall. "Hey, y'all," said Applejack when they got over, "Mind if ah brought along a little guest?" "No problem, AJ!" exclaimed Pinkie, "Hi, Dashie! C'mon, sit down! I ordered chocolate milkshakes for all of us, and I ordered an extra for you!" "I thought you didn't know I was coming…" said Rainbow, skeptically. "I didn't!" said Pinkie enthusiastically, as if nothing was wrong. Rainbow rolled her eyes and sat down. "Oh, hello, Rainbow Dash!" said Mrs. Cake when she came over with the trays of milkshakes on a cart, "5 chocolate milkshakes coming up!"

"So, where were you guys," said Rainbow, taking a sip of her milkshake, "did you teleport or something?" Sunset nodded, "Yeah, I teleported everypony. Not you, of course, I hoped that you'd get out okay. Nightmare's in a frenzy trying to find that rainbow streak. She won't find it, though, it was just your trail." Sun giggled, "Yeah, that'll keep 'em busy for a while…" "I can imagine it now:" said Pinkie Pie, getting off her chair and standing up really tall on her back hooves, and she shouted to imitate the Royal Canterlot Voice, "GUARDS! FIND THAT RAINBOW STREAK RIGHT NOW! SEARCH THE CASTLE AND THE DUNGEON AND EVERYTHING!" Then she fell over, bursting into a fit of laughter. Everypony else in the entirety of Sugarcube Corner had heard her and burst into a fit of giggles.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Sun, summing it up. "However," said Pinkie suddenly being serious, "We've got a more pressing matter at hoof." "Pinkie? Are you okay?" asked Applejack. "Yes, Applejack," said Pinkie, retaining her monotone, serious composure, "I am just fine. However, there is somepony who isn't fine, that is Nightmare. She's got on the Alicorn Amulet, and we've got to find somepony who can counter such an impressive magic." "While I was hovering behind Nightmare," said Rainbow, "I saw a note that said, 'Destroy Elements'. I can only assume she had Wind and Wave in custody someplace and plans to destroy the Elements that they hold." "Problem is," said Pinkie, "Nightmare is gonna be furious when she realizes that she can't get 'em." Pinkie pulled the elements of Loyalty and Magic out from behind her back, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Where did you get those?!" exclaimed Sunset. "You're just gonna have to find out, cookie!" said Pinkie Pie, patting Sunset on the head. Sunset shrugged. "Well, can you pull… …and… …out of nowhere too?" "Just did!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, pulling Wind and Wave out from behind her back as well, "I took them out of your sentence! See... In the text over there… Yeah!" "I don't know what you're talking about, Pinkie," said Wind, "But I'm sure happy that none of _that stuff_ was actually real." A shiver ran through her as she walked over to get seats for her and Wave, then motioned for Wave to sit down. "Well," Wave tapped on the tabletop, "I hope there are enough milkshakes to go around for Wind and I…" "Absolutely-tootly!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, rushing over to the counter, making two chocolate milkshakes, and rushing back over, "Done!" "Pinkie," tapped Wind, "You know sign language?" "Yesserooni!" tapped Pinkie, to which Wind looked rather confused. She then simply tapped twice, quickly. "Oh," Wind tapped, "You're very good at making up words, Pinkie. Regardless of the language." "Thanks," tapped Pinkie.

"What are you two doing?" asked Rainbow. "Sign Language," Pinkie said matter-of-factly. "Oh," said Rainbow, "I knew it existed, but I don't know very much." "Yes," tapped Rainbow, demonstrating what she knew of the language, "No", "Thanks", "Cool", "Awesome", "Radical", "Rainbow." "And that's just about all I know," said Rainbow. "Well," tapped Wave, "You certainly know a lot of words for 'cool'." Wind said this aloud, and Rainbow nodded. "Can you say your name?" asked Pinkie, "Cause I can!" "You betcha!" said Rainbow, then she tapped three long, slow beats and a skid across the table. "See?" she said afterwards, "I can do it!"

"That pretty much describes your life," said Applejack. "How so?" asked Rainbow, expecting an insult. Applejack tapped once and said, "Ready," tapped again and said, "Set," tapped a third time and said "Go!" Then she skidded her hoof across the table, that maneuver meant "Dash" in sign language. "And then you're gone!" exclaimed Applejack. "Oh!" said Rainbow, "Yeah, you're right. I was pretty much born to be fast, wasn't I?" "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Pinkie.

"Well," said Sunset, finishing up her milkshake, "We should go off to bed." "There won't be enough room at the library for all of us!" exclaimed Sun. "That's all right," said Rainbow, "All the pegasi can sleep at my place!" "Nope," said Sun, wrapping a wing around Sunset, "I ain't going nowhere without Sunset!" "Don't worry, Sun!" said Sunset, "Cloud Walking Spell! Learned it from Princess Twilight's books. Also, I can teleport up and down. Just make sure I don't have to do it too much, okay? Teleportation isn't exactly the easiest spell to do." "No problem, Sunset," said Sun, "I can just carry you up. And if I can't, we have two of the best fliers in all of Equestria here, namely, Rainbow Dash and Wind Rider." "Please," said both Elements of Loyalty in perfect synchronicity, "I don't need you bragging for me."

"I sleep at Sugarcube corner, like always," said Pinkie Pie, "Speaking of which, I'm gonna go to bed now. See ya, guys!" "Bye, Pinkie!" the rest said after her. "Okay," said Applejack, "Ah'm gonna go back to Twi's library to get some shut-eye. See ya in the mornin', everypony!" "Wave?" tapped Wind, "As long as you hold my hoof going there, we'll get there just fine." "Good idea, Wind," tapped Wave, "Can you tell Rainbow Dash to show me the way?" Wind nodded, "Rainbow Dash? Lead the way to your place?" "Sure," said Rainbow with a grunt, "As soon as I can get this unicorn on my back." "You don't have to ask me twice!" exclaimed Sunset, jumping on, "And next time, don't try to shove me. I'm a pony, not a package." "Well," said Sun, taking off with them and flying alongside Rainbow to chat with Sunset, "If you were a package, you'd be an awfully precious one."

When they arrived at Rainbow Dash's place, the sun had already set. Nightmare was apparently not willing to rule over a dead kingdom, regardless of how evil she became. She already saw the outcome of eternal night. "Well," Wave tapped to Wind, "We're here." "You've got that cloud walking thing going?" asked Sun. Sunset nodded, jumping off Sun's back and onto the clouds. "Come on in," said Rainbow, "I'll show you guys around."

They walked inside Rainbow's home, the first room was a massive kitchen with a sink, dishwasher, and several cabinets, all made of clouds. There was another room right next to it with a table, along with seven chairs (her five friends, her, and one extra seat), again all made out of clouds. "Whoa," said Sun. "Whoa is right," said Rainbow proudly, "This is based off of the architectural design of Cloudsdale, the rainbow falls outside the house also absorb any excess heat from inside, acting as an air conditioning system. For heating in the winter, I built a few cloud jets. They make clouds to reinforce the walls so drafts don't get in." "You built this?!" exclaimed Sunset. "With my own four hooves and two wings, yep!" exclaimed Rainbow, proud of her hoofwork. "Whoa…" said Sun.

Up a staircase there were two gigantic bedrooms, complete with drawers and stuff, and at the end of the hallway there was a room with a cloud couch floating on a pool of rainbows. "This is the closest I could've gotten to an indoor pool," said Rainbow, "I made the spectra myself. Rainbooms and such." "Sorry to be repetitive," said Sunset, "But this is all just so impressive." "I'm not the head of the weather team for nothing!" exclaimed Rainbow, "I built this out of five different types of clouds, I could list them if it weren't so late. For now, let's all get to bed. I've got enough beds for all of you, although somepony is gonna have to sleep in the rainbow pool, and I volunteer for that." "It is your house," said Sun, "Sunset? Wanna sleep with me?" "Absolutely-tootly!" said Sunset, imitating Pinkie Pie. They walked inside the closest bedroom and shut the door. "And I'm assuming you two want to sleep together as well?" asked Rainbow gesturing to Wind and Wave. "Yes, please," said Wind, having Wave lead her into the bedroom. Then Rainbow flew over to the rainbow pool, settled in the floating cloud couch thing, and fell asleep.


	21. Superultraepicawesomazing

Rainbow Dash awoke to a knocking on the door (Yes, you can knock on a door made of clouds). She got up, flew over to the door and opened it. To her surprise, there was a pegasus pony and a unicorn standing at the door. "I… hope I'm not disturbing anything," said the unicorn. "If I'm not mistaken," said Rainbow Dash, "You're Morning Ice and this is Moon Pool. You're here because your sister is, Moon, aren't you?" "Yeah," said Moon, kicking the cloud with her hoof, "Why… is she here?" "What were you up to, sis?" asked a voice behind Rainbow.

"Sun!" exclaimed Moon, running up to her sister, "I've been flying all over looking for you!" "So, what have you been up to?" asked Sun. "We crashed in the Everfree, almost got turned to stone by a cockatrice, Morning here used a totally awesome thing she learned from Fluttershy called 'The Stare' to send it back where it belonged. Then we were lost in the Everfree for a LONG time, and we met a river serpent who said he knew Rarity and led us out of the forest, but not on land. There was a river that went all the way through the Everfree, then around the edge of Ponyville. We ended up near Sweet Apple Acres, had a squabble with Applejack and some beavers, then Fluttershy found us and said that she last saw Sun leaving Sugarcube Corner, last night, to come here! So… I got Morning and we came over here." Sun simply replied, "So you were busy too, huh?" Morning nodded.

"Hey, what's the racket, Sun?" asked Sunset, having just got up and went downstairs to see what all the ruckus was about. "Hey, Sunset," said Sun, "Moon and Morning are here, too! They just got here…" "its 2:00 am!" exclaimed Sunset, looking out the open door to see that it was still dark out. Morning hid under her mane. "Oh," said Sunset, "Sorry, Morning. I just didn't think you guys would come so early!" "Well," said Sun, "Come in, you guys, its kinda cold out and we wouldn't want you catching pneumonia. Not the best thing to have, you know." They went into the kitchen and Morning said, "I kind of thought you'd be upset with me about getting here so early, so I got here a little less early in favor of collecting some clover." She picked up her saddlebags with her magic, opened them, and dumped them onto the table. "That's an awful lot of clover," said Sunset. "Moon helped me pick it," said Morning, "And she also helped to lighten the mood up. She was singing stuff the entire time, and she has a better voice than Octavia." "She probably got it from my mom, Wave. She's great at singing, so it fits!" said Sun. Moon blushed out of embarrassment. "You don't have to brag for me, Sun," said Moon. "Yeah," said Sun, "But I want to anyway!"

As they sat to eat, Rainbow nearly tripped getting into her chair. And the entire time, they couldn't see. "The sun isn't up yet," said Morning, "That makes it kinda hard to see sometimes. Here," she cast an illumination spell, "That should do nicely." "Thanks, Morning;" said Moon, "You're the best." "I can light up half the house if you'd like," said Sun. "How?!" asked Sunset. "Sonic Sunboom," said Rainbow Dash, "I've seen it. And you said half the house?" she held out her hoof to Sun, "Well, I can double that light." "You're on," said Sun, hoof-bumping Rainbow and taking off. "How competitive can those two get?" asked Moon rhetorically. "No idea," said Sunset, watching out the window as they sped around the house.

"This gives a whole new meaning to 'run a few laps around the house to run off all that energy', doesn't it?" asked Moon as the two of them continued building up speed for their maneuvers. Meanwhile, outside the house, Sun and Rainbow were circling around the house, so fast it would have looked to somepony on the outside that it was encircled in a huge ball of rainbows and fire. But from Sun and Rainbow's perspectives, they were simply circling the house, faster and faster in an effort to get some light around the place. "How close are you?!" Rainbow shouted over the wind to Sun, referring to how much faster she'd have to go to rainboom. Or, in her case, sunboom. "Really close!" Sun shouted back, "You?!" "I could go any minute now," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes before squinting and beating her wings even faster than before. "You're on!" Sun exclaimed, flapping as fast as she possibly could and speeding ahead.

As the white aura surrounded Sun's front hooves, Rainbow took this as a challenge and flew fast enough to get her own aura, their auras becoming thinner and thinner around them as they were squeezed into 'the tube', as Rainbow called it. It was simply a term to describe the area inside the turbulence. The roughly parabolic shapes became even thinner, giving the fliers only a few feet of room to fly in without being sucked into the outer turbulence. They could barely see the house itself, just a large whitish blur they were whizzing around at almost the speed of sound (quite literally).

The rainboom and sunboom happened at the same moment, and the sparkling trails left behind by the two fliers lit up the entire area around Rainbow's house. They flew out a little, as not to accidentally damage the clouds that comprised the house. Although, that might not have been the best of ideas, for now they had to dodge the small mountain range that encircled the house (to keep it from blowing away). "I think that's enough," mouthed Rainbow. Sun nodded, and they went into a series of loops and barrel rolls to burn off speed. Their trails dissipated and they landed on the upper balcony of Rainbow's house. "Nice moves, kid," said Rainbow, looking around at their trails. "You've got some pretty sweet moves yourself," said Sun, "But flying isn't exactly my special talent. I'd like to see you beat me in a tennis match…" "Not a chance in Tartarus," said Rainbow, flying inside the house and down two flights of steps into the kitchen. "So," said Sun once they got there, "How'd we do?"

"Astonishing!" exclaimed Morning. "Amazing!" exclaimed Moon. "I've got a word for it," said a voice from behind them all, "Superultraepicawesomazing!" "Scoots?" asked Rainbow Dash, turning around. "Yeah," said Scootaloo, climbing out of the cupboard, "I was gonna surprise you! Tomorrow's your birthday, remember, Rainbow Dash? Remember?" "Oh, yeah!" Rainbow said sarcastically, "I forgot!" "Well, I was gonna bring you a present," said Scootaloo, "And Pinkie said she's gonna plan you something awesome, but she said not to say what it was." "Tomorrow's your birthday?" asked Sun, "Also, who's this?" "Rainbow Dash's biggest fan and little sister!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "The name's Scootaloo, but you can call me Scoots if you want."

"Well, Scoots," said Rainbow, "These are some of my newest friends. This is Sun Rider, her twin sister Moon Pool, Moon's friend Morning Ice, and Sun's friend Sunset Sky. Sun and Moon's parents are upstairs; their names are Wind Rider and Wave Pool." "Cool!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "Sometime I should introduce all of you to my best friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, it'd be totally sweet!" She blinked her gray-purple eyes, grinned and said, "I only came here because I realized a few minutes ago that I didn't know what you wanted for your birthday!" "You're an ample gift, Scoots," said Rainbow, ruffling her little sister's mane. "Well," said Morning, "I'll be sure to bring a gift to Pinkie Pie's 'awesome thing' tomorrow!" "Me too," said Moon, grinning widely. "Absolutely!" exclaimed Sun, "And I'll make sure it's extra awesome, it's for my flying partner after all." "I'm gonna bring one as well," said Sunset. "Don't forget us!" exclaimed Wind Rider.

"Mama," said Sun, "Where'd you come from? I thought you were in bed!" "I was," said Wind, "but now I'm not. Funny, that." "Well," said Sunset, "From what I've heard, as long as Wave can sing for us, I don't think she has to bring a gift. That's a gift in it of itself."

Wave, who'd been hearing all this (metaphorically) from Wind tapping it to her, she tapped back, "I'm bringing a gift, too. I shouldn't be the only one not to." "Please, mom," tapped Sun, "You're gonna be a key part of the party! You're gonna be the lead singer for the dancing music!" "I only know 3 songs," tapped Wave, "And it's not like I can learn new ones." "The three songs you know are ample," tapped Wind.

"Hey, Wave?" asked Sunset, "Can you sing something for us?" Wind translated for her, and then Wave tapped, "No, that'll wait until the party tomorrow." Wind translated, and a wave of sighs and 'aw…'s came from the rest of them. "Oh, all right," tapped Wave, "I'll do it." Wind translated, and everypony shouted an exuberant "Yay!" before sitting down at Wave's hooves. Then Wave sat down as well, and she began to sing Loyalty.

About halfway through the song, Rainbow Dash had decided that, since the song was written from her perspective, she should get to dance to it. And dance she did, she put on quite the performance while Wave was singing, and soon everypony was dancing, singing or both. Pretty soon, right as the rainbows were fading round the house, the sun started coming up, and they all stopped dancing and they all flew or rode up to the top of one of the highest mountains to watch the sunrise.


	22. Armory

Shortly after the sun rose, they went back to Rainbow's house to read and play and sing. However, right after they landed on the front porch, Wind said, "Stop, everypony. Be quiet, I think I hear something." Everypony was completely quiet as Wind's ears twitched this way and that. The three who knew how Wind did things the best, Wave, Moon and Sun, literally held their breath. "There's a war starting," Wind announced. "How do you…" started Rainbow before Sun clamped a hoof over her mouth and stated simply, "She just does."

"Well," said Rainbow, "I've got you guys' Elements in here." She pointed inside her house. "That's not gonna help any, Rainbow," said Sun, "We're gonna need armor." "There are two sides to this war," Sunset informed them when they went inside to get some armor and other supplies, "the Solar Empire and the Lunar Republic. I'm planning on going toward the Solar Empire, so we can have our sun back. The days have been getting shorter and shorter, if you haven't noticed already." "I was a PFF of the prized pupil of Princess Celestia," said Rainbow, "I think I'll be staying _loyal_ to my friend, as well as all of Equestria." "If Rainbow's going," said Scootaloo, "It's got to be good. I'm coming too." "Agreed," said Sun, "I'm gonna help bring back the daylight as well." "If my sister's going," said Moon, "I'm going too." "If you're going," said Morning, "I'm going too." "Well then," said Rainbow, "Come with me. I've got some stuff for ya." And with that, she opened… a wall… and led them down a staircase into the basement.

"You've got more medals and trophies down here than anypony else in the entirety of Equestria!" exclaimed Moon. Rainbow simply nodded, "As much as I'd love to show you guys all my trophies and things, there's a war on if you haven't noticed. And we're gonna need armor. Not to mention weapons for those of us who don't have them built into our skulls." "I… actually don't know any offensive magic," said Morning shyly. "I do," said Sunset, "But it's very minimal." As they were talking, Rainbow led them over to the edge of the room, where there were several mannequins covered from head to hoof in armor. "Why do you have all this stuff here?" asked Moon. "Collection," said Rainbow, "But don't worry, it's not any cheap play armor. This is the real thing. Just because it's a collection doesn't mean it's a collection of specific collectibles." "You've got quite the vocabulary there," said Sunset, impressed. "Nothing compared to Twilight," said Rainbow sarcastically.

Walking up to one mannequin, Rainbow picked out an outfit for Moon. It had a sun emblazoned on the front, all of them did, and Moon slipped on the leg-guards and wing protectors. Her helmet had a large slot down the top for her mane, and she put on the saddle and Morning helped her fasten the strap around her middle with her magic. Moon pulled her tail out through the hole, and then she turned around and asked Morning, "How do I look?" "Great!" exclaimed Morning.

Sunset was already putting on her set of armor, her slicked-back, poofy mane poking through the hole in the helmet and her horn coming through another, smaller, round hole. She then helped Sun into her armor with her magic, fastening their saddles and slipping on the hoof-guards, wing protectors for Sun and a horn protector sat on the helmet of Sunset in front of her horn, amplifying her defensive and offensive magic and also keeping it from being hit by a sword or anything else for that matter. "You look great," said Sunset. "You look really impressive too," said Sun, "I wouldn't want to be them with you on this side."

As Rainbow Dash donned her armor, which consisted of a helmet of a slightly darker sky blue than her coat, a saddle of the same color that covered her cutie mark but had an exact, specific replica exactly where it would be, rainbow-colored hoof- and wing-guards, and a pair of horse-shoes that nearly matched her coat color. "Whoa," said Morning quietly. "Whoa is right," said Sun, "That stuff is gosh darn impressive!" "Had it custom made for me by the Princess, you know, Celestia? The war your parents were in. The Second Changeling War is what they called it up in Canterlot," Rainbow stated as she finished shoving her mane through the slot in her helmet.

"That's the war that we fought in?" asked Wind, "We didn't stay for the naming process." "We had a competition to get to," tapped Wave. "Who won?!" exclaimed Sun. "We both did," said Wind. "Speaking of which," said Sunset, "Isn't the National Tennis Championships in a few weeks? It was supposed to be about two weeks ago… but it got cancelled because… eternal night and all that." "Yeah," said Sun, "But I think it's gonna be postponed again, that's because of all this war and stuff." "I wouldn't count on that, Sun," said Wind, "The Surfing Championships certainly wasn't postponed due to the Changeling War or whatever it's called." "Right," said Sun with a sigh. "We're gonna need weapons, though," said Rainbow, leading them over to a chest. "Don't I get armor too?!" whined Scootaloo with a pleading look. "I almost forgot!" exclaimed Rainbow, walking over to the chest and pulling out a much smaller helmet, a saddle, hoof-guards and wing-guards. "Good?" asked Rainbow, "I certainly wouldn't want my little sis to get banged up, would I?"

Searching through the chest some more, they found a sword for each of them and a dagger for Scootaloo. She was much older now, and Rainbow trusted her with a sharp object of that size relative to her. She still had no cutie mark, but she didn't much care about that. "Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Scootaloo, ecstatic. "No problem, kid," said Rainbow. Then Rainbow pulled out her own sword. The blade was long, around 2 feet and slightly curved, the handle was rainbow colored and it had her cutie mark emblazoned on the sky blue end piece on the end of the handle. "That sword is really amazing," said Sunset, looking down it. "Thanks," said Rainbow, nodding. Rainbow grabbed it in her mouth and stepped away from everypony, and she held the sword in her mouth while she did a few, small, controlled flying maneuvers. "Still got it," she told herself when she landed.

Sunset got a book on magical weapons to share with Morning, Moon and Sun each got their own material swords. "We're prepared," said Sun bravely, "So we should go and fight!" She held her hoof out. "Absolutely," said Morning definitively, putting her hoof on top of Sun's. "Don't forget me!" Moon said happily, putting her hoof into the circle. "Me neither, I'm not gonna be left behind!" said Sunset, putting her hoof in as well. "We're coming, too," tapped Wave, her and Wind putting their hooves in. Wind said this aloud, and then Rainbow said, "Scoots and I are coming, too." She tapped Scootaloo on the head, and Scootaloo said, "Yeah!" Since Apple Bloom had been teasing her about how she was awfully scared of most danger, she'd gotten over her fears all too well. She could also fly now, not quite as well as Rainbow Dash, but she was working on it.

"If everypony's in," said Rainbow, "Let's go!" With that, they all flew or were carried down to the ground, and they walked over to Ponyville proper. As they neared, the rest of them began to hear what Wind had been hearing for a while now: the sounds of the battle. There was shouting and clanking of swords of all kinds. Suddenly they heard a crinkling and a slow clanking. "Everypony get down!" Rainbow whisper-shouted, jumping into the bushes and grabbing Scootaloo. The clanking of hooves grew slower as they grew louder, coming closer. Looking down from the cloud she was on, Moon saw that it was a scout from the Lunar Republic, probably searching the area. It was a mare; she had a bright white coat and a dark cyan mane that was brushed nicely but cut very abruptly right past her face. She had a pearl cutie mark. She remained expressionless as she looked around the area.

The odd part about this mare, though, was that she didn't seem to bear the symbolism that signified the Lunar Republic: the light, ice blue moon emblazoned on her armor. "She can't be really in the army; she's probably just an honorary scout who had family in the actual army," thought Moon. "One of these days," said the scout, "I'm going to be in the real army, just like my brother was." "Hello?" asked Moon softly. "Huh?!" the scout exclaimed, spinning around. "I'm Moon Pool…" started Moon, "Who are you?" "I was just about to ask the same thing!" the scout exclaimed, and then she quieted down and said, "I'm Winter Pearl. Honorary scout to the Lunar Republic." "I knew it," said Moon quietly. "How?!" asked Winter. "I do my reading," said Moon simply, "Symbolism. Or, rather, lack thereof." "Oh," said Winter, looking at the ground, "I just wish I could be a real army mare…" "Great idea," said Moon, "But I think you're on the wrong side." "I don't care!" exclaimed Winter. "I think you should," said Morning. "Who are you?!" exclaimed Winter. "My name's Morning Ice," said Morning, "Nice to meet you, Winter. You see, I'm not usually too outspoken, but I think you need some help. Here, come sit with me."

"You've got a psychology background?!" asked Moon. "Some," said Morning, ditching her shy demeanor for a calm, almost hypnotic one, "Now, come, let's talk." She gestured to a small patch of slightly grassed over ground, Winter sat down and Morning sat next to her, across from her not a foot away. "Tell me," said Morning, "Why are you here? What's your purpose for being in this mare's army?" "My friend's brother… he…" stuttered Winter, "He was killed in battle. Then when my friend was almost killed herself… she said that I should enlist so I could help out too." "That can't be a bed of roses to go through," said Morning comfortingly, "But you don't understand. You're on the side that's going for Nightmare Moon… not the nice one, the evil one. The one with the eternal night and all that. Winter, you're making a big mistake here. You're going up against all of us," she beckoned for her friends to come out of the bushes, and Winter gasped when she saw all those ponies there. "You really don't want to be fighting us," said Morning, for anypony else it would have sounded like bragging, but from Morning it sounded comforting, soothing.

Suddenly, there were hoofsteps coming their way. Winter got up to run, but Morning stood and stopped Winter by putting a hoof out in front of her. The hoofsteps got closer, and they saw another army mare coming down the pathway. The pony stopped in her tracks when she saw Winter, and she pulled her sword out of its sheath and glared, holding the sword in her mouth. "Don't move," the mare said through her teeth, "Or I'll kill you right here and now." "Relax;" said Morning calmly, "She's not really one of them. She's just a little messed up in here," she pointed to her head with her hoof. "Oh," said the pony, "Well then. Since we're not dealing with the enemy here, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Commander Armory, Solar Empire." Commander Armory saluted them. "I'm Morning Ice, Civilian With A Sword Who Wants to Help." Morning saluted back. As Rainbow and the others walked out of the bushes, Armory came over to Rainbow and saluted, then bowed. "Commander Armory, at your service, Miss Rainbow Dash." "Um," said Rainbow, unsure of what to do, "Nice to meet you, too. And you can just call me Rainbow."

"Okay, Rainbow," said Armory, getting up and nodding. "You gonna fight?" asked Armory. "You betcha!" exclaimed Rainbow, "And these are my friends. They're fighting too." "Fine and dandy, miss… I mean Rainbow. What rank are they?" asked Armory. "Same rank as me, I assume," said Rainbow. "But… You're an Element User! We don't rank those… they just get top priority no matter what!" exclaimed Armory with significant and apparent exasperation. "Haven't you heard? They used the Elements too, they saved Ponyville from an Ursa Major!" said Rainbow Dash. "Really?" asked Armory, surprised before regaining her composure, "I mean… I didn't hear about that yet… Rainbow… I should look into that. Regardless, please come with me to my unit, I'll require your help."

Only a little ways off, through a large swath of plains and forested areas, they arrived at… Sweet Apple Acres?! "This is where my unit is stationed," said Armory, "In this old barn here. We rebuilt it, it was obviously abandoned, and we decided it'd make a good Battalion Aid Station for our wounded." "You have doctors here?" asked Moon, quietly as not to collect any unnecessary attention. "Yeah," said Armory, "Not exactly the best in Equestria, but they do their jobs. They do theirs, and we do ours. Find a foxhole and get in it, there's a war on." Sun and Sunset jumped into a foxhole not a few feet from the rest of them, and Sunset started firing magical spears at the enemy. It wasn't all that effective, though.

"Tap into my magic reservoir," said Sun. "What?!" Sunset whisper-shouted. "Just do it!" exclaimed Sun. Sunset nodded and placed her horn on Sun's forehead, working extra hard to penetrate the thick helmet. They squinted, trying to block out the distinctive glare from Sunset's horn. That, and the fact that Sunset was working so hard. Suddenly, though, Sunset felt this huge surge of magic. "You have a gigantic magic reservoir," Sunset thought. Somehow, Sun heard her thoughts and nodded. Their vision whited out, they clasped onto each other for support, and a huge shield powered over the foxhole. Then a rain of magical spears rained down on the enemy, a huge amount of screams and galloping emanated from the other side of the field.

"Whoa," said Commander Armory, thoroughly shocked. "I don't think… they're gonna come back anytime soon…" said Moon. Sun and Sunset climbed shakily out of the foxhole. "How… how'd we do…" said Sun right before collapsing. Sunset said a few, shaky, incoherent words before collapsing as well. "I've got 'em," said Rainbow, flying inside the barn and putting them onto two stretchers right next to each other.


	23. Soldier Scootaloo

**This chapter was **_**really**_** weird to write, but also quite fun. Hope you guys like it and I also hope I didn't overdo anything in particular. Difficult to write a chapter where the main character is you.**

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~Meanwhile, on the other side of Ponyville…

"I'm looking for General Swords." Scootaloo was trying to sign up to fight for the Solar Empire, get a rank of her own and such. "This is her," said Swords, ushering Scootaloo inside the small, makeshift building toward the edge of the Everfree Forest. "Hello, General…" started Scootaloo before the General cut her off. "You're Rainbow Dash's little sister, aren't you?" asked the General. "Yes, sir," said Scootaloo. "Well then," said General Swords, "You've already got armor, you looking for a rank? If so… name it." "Anything that'll get me up to the front without any trouble, sir," said Scootaloo. "Will Major suffice?" asked Swords. "I don't know," said Scootaloo, "You tell me, sir." "Yes, I think that'll fit you well," said Swords, "Well then. You've got weapons, haven't you?" "I'd like more, sir, if that's okay, sir," said Scootaloo, pulling out the small dagger Rainbow had given her, "This dagger is all I have."

"Well, for a good soldier like you, that simply will not do," said Swords, "But they don't call me Swords for nothing. Come with me." Swords got up and walked over to a trunk filled with swords of all shapes and sizes. There was one stand-out, though, and that was a beautiful orange bow with a purple string and a sack of arrows. "May I have that, sir?" asked Scootaloo politely, pointing to the bow. "Absolutely, soldier," said Swords, pulling it out and giving it to Scootaloo, "And that dagger should do you fine for close-range combat, I don't think you pegasi are gonna get much of that, though. The Lunar side is mostly unicorns and earth ponies, honestly." "Thank you, sir," said Scootaloo, "Now… where's the fighting at?"

Scootaloo flew quickly across a large field until she heard the distinct sounds of a battle. She was still better off sitting on a cloud or something and propelling that, so she quickly grabbed a large cloud and sat on top of it, keeping her tail under her to make sure that nopony saw her. Scootaloo propelled herself all the way across the field on that cloud, and then she stopped when she got to the front. She looked down and saw the battle, all the ponies fighting on the ground.

Holding her bow in her hooves, Scootaloo put an arrow into the slot and pulled back the string, letting it fire on an enemy soldier and letting her fall to the ground. She tried to aim to spots where the armor wasn't, so the arrows would have more impact. Every couple of minutes, she felt like puking. All the death and destruction… not exactly a pretty sight. Suddenly, on her own side of the war, she saw a familiar sight.

Scootaloo blinked her eyes in disbelief. Nopony else she knew had the same armor, rainbow tail, cyan coat, wings. It had to be Rainbow Dash. But what was she doing here?! Then Scootaloo remembered: Rainbow is the Element of Loyalty, and her own sudden disappearance had to have something to do with it. "Rainbow is gonna get herself killed!" Scootaloo thought. However, if she flew down herself, she'd get shot down almost immediately after she took off. So Scootaloo simply gritted her teeth and waited, hoping her sister would see her. Just then, though…

Rainbow charged right at a unicorn, which, at the last second, summoned a magical sword and sliced a clean hole through Rainbow's chest. Scootaloo, wide-eyed, summoned the courage to fly down. But right then, as Scootaloo saw as she was flying down from the couple miles up she'd been, the unicorn took her magical blade and started hacking through Rainbow's helmet. Rainbow got up, slowly, but was knocked to the ground again by the unicorn's hoof. Rainbow took out her sword, but the unicorn cut a slice across her cheek and the sword flew out of Rainbow's mouth. The unicorn took no interest in the weapon, she had magic after all. But it was then that Scootaloo landed.

The unicorn paid no heed to Scootaloo; she was a young pegasus mare with very few weapons. Scootaloo dropped her dagger in favor of picking up Rainbow's long sword, charging at the unicorn. "THIS IS FOR RAINBOW DASH!" yelled Scootaloo as she sliced through the pony's thick chest armor, badly wounding her. As the unicorn fell to the ground, Scootaloo stood in front of her older sister, a feral grimace on her face as she growled. However, proving she was a sufficient threat to the enemy simply meant more fighting to come. And that prediction would prove true as Scootaloo fought off soldier after soldier.

When she finished fighting off the enemy soldiers with the help of the other Solar Empire soldiers, she ran over as rain started pouring down on the battlefield, Scootaloo avoided slipping in the mud puddles as she ran. "Rainbow Dash?!" she asked. Her sister's neck was bent into an odd position, there was a gaping hole through her chest and several holes in her armor, her wings were at her sides but one was severely bent out of shape. "I NEED A DOCTOR OVER HERE!" Scootaloo screamed, tears running down her face. She pressed an ear to her sister's chest, listening for a pulse. There was one, but it was very faint and irregular. "Hang in there, Rainbow Dash…" said Scootaloo quietly, her tears dripping down onto Rainbow's coat, soaking it, "Hang in there…"

A doctor ran over, it was a blue pegasus stallion with a green mane and a scalpel for a cutie mark. He asked Scootaloo what happened, to which she gritted her teeth and replied, "The pulse is there but it's irregular, her right wing is broken, her neck is damaged or broken, it's hard to tell, and she's got a magical blade wound in her chest." "Good work," said the doctor as he put Rainbow onto a stretcher and they both flew with it to the other end of Ponyville.

They ended up on the other end of Ponyville a few minutes later at the barn. "We've got an urgent case here!" exclaimed the doctor. "Get her into Pre-Op!" exclaimed another doctor with a red cross for a cutie mark. "Is she gonna be okay?" asked Scootaloo worriedly. "Who are you?" asked the doctor with the red cross cutie mark. "Major Scootaloo," said Scootaloo, "I'm here to help. I'm Rainbow Dash's little sister." "Put a mask on, soldier," said the doctor as he walked into the operating room. Scootaloo took off her helmet and put on a mask, and then she walked into the operating room to watch. Soon, though, all the blood was too overwhelming and she exited the room, waiting in Post-Op for her sister.

In about six hours, the doctors took an unconscious but stable Rainbow Dash on a stretcher with an IV in her front leg, a bandage on her wing and a brace on her neck. "Is she gonna be all right?" asked Scootaloo worriedly. "She's stable right now," said one of the nurses, she was a white mare with a cross and four pink hearts in the spaces around it and she had a light magenta mane that was pulled up in a bun in back. "Nurse Redheart?!" exclaimed Scootaloo. Nurse Redheart nodded, then she checked a few things and left, leaving Scootaloo alone with Rainbow Dash. In a few hours, two or three maybe, Rainbow opened her eyes. They were bloodshot but rested, and she looked up to see Scootaloo. "What… happened…" asked Rainbow hoarsely. "Ssh…" said Scootaloo, putting a hoof to her mouth gently, "I'll tell you everything."

"I'm… so sorry, Scoots…" said Rainbow, "I shouldn't have come…" "No, no," said Scootaloo, "I shouldn't have left without telling you. I just wanted to do something useful…" "Major Scootaloo?" asked Nurse Redheart, "Your sister will be just fine. She just needs about a week to heal. She's got a compound wing fracture, but that should heal soon. Her neck is a little out of alignment, but the brace will fix that. Her eyes will return to normal in an hour or two. Should I get you some quarters to sleep here?" Scootaloo shook her head, pointing to the empty stretcher next to Rainbow's. "I'll sleep there," said Scootaloo, "As long as it's not needed for anything, or anypony, else." "It's not," said Nurse Redheart, "And it won't be for a while now. Thanks to you, Major, we've taken that entire section for the Solar Empire. We've got no incoming casualties for a while yet."


	24. Star Sparkle

**Introducing a bunch of new OCs, let's see if you ponies can keep up. Enjoy a nice, long chapter (relatively speaking, most of my chapters are really short anyways) to compensate for the longish break from last chapter. Enjoy!**

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"You ready to go, Star?"

Up in Canterlot, in a small hospital camp, a bright canary unicorn with a neon pink mane and a hairstyle incredibly similar to Twilight's was recovering from the last of her latest war-related injuries in a Post-Op Ward near the outskirts of what was left of the beautiful mountain city. Star Sparkle was the mare's name, and she was a cousin to Twilight Sparkle. She had a cutie mark of a bright orange, five-pointed star with six other tiny five-pointed stars around it in a circle, indicative of her innate talent with magical weaponry. Twilight's mother, Night Light, had a sister, Star Light, who in turn had two children. Their names? Dew Sparkle and Star Sparkle. Dew Sparkle, Star's sister, had died in the New Lunar War, the first one, up in Canterlot. Star, a year younger than Dew, had joined the Solar Empire in an attempt to replace her sister. And now, Star's friend Lasso Loop, a dark orange earth pony with a crimson mane and a lasso for a cutie mark, was calling for her to get back to their unit. "Coming!" exclaimed Star, putting on her armor which was Solar Empire regulation issue. She slipped on the saddle with her magic and put on the hoof-guards. She slipped her horn, ears, mane and muzzle into the bright, white helmet. Then she put her mane into a ponytail and ran outside to meet her buddies.

"You ready to jump into another foxhole?" asked her buddy Whirlwind, a light gray pegasus pony with a light blue, messy mane that was also pulled up into a ponytail. Whirlwind, or Whirl as her friends called her, had a cutie mark of a tornado and had saved them multiple times previous with her special talent for creating small tornados and hurricanes, solo. Star nodded, her bangs bouncing slightly as she did so. "Hey, Sketchy," said Lasso, "You coming?"

Sketchy was a dark purple unicorn artist with a pencil for a cutie mark and a bright magenta mane. "Yeah," she said happily, finishing pulling her short, slightly windswept hair into a tidy ponytail then running to catch up. "Wait for me!" exclaimed another pony. "Bubble Gum!" exclaimed Sketchy, "Why are you always late?!" "Because I'm being fashionably late!" exclaimed Bubble, a dark magenta earth pony with a light magenta mane that was almost as bubbly as her personality. She had a cutie mark of a pack of bubble gum, and she bounced exactly like Pinkie Pie (the idol that Bubble had worshipped since she was a 'teeny-weeny, teeny-tiny, itty-bitty Bubble' as Bubble herself put it) down to her buddies. "You ready now, Bubble?" asked Star sarcastically. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Bubble Gum, bouncing along while her buddies walked all the way across Canterlot, through all the fighting and shooting, to their unit.

Once they arrived, they got called on, all of them, by their CO (Commanding Officer). Her name was Commander Battler, she was a short-tempered dark green pegasus with a neon green mane and a bow and arrow for a cutie mark. "You called, sir?" asked Star respectfully when she and her friends arrived, saluting. "Yes," said the Commander, "I have recently been informed that Ponyville will be taken for the Solar Empire in only a few weeks. Then we will get a flood of brand new soldiers over here, I require you, Star, to help organize them." "Yes, sir!" said Star. "Whirlwind?" asked Battler, "I need you to find quarters for these recruits. Also, I've heard that we're going to have an Element User, by the name of Rainbow Dash, to come as well. We will need the VIP tent prepared for her." Bubble gasped and said excitedly, "Is Pinkie Pie coming too?" "I don't believe so," said Battler. Bubble hid her disappointment well, and she said simply, "Okay, sir. Very well." "Anything else, sir?" asked Sketchy. "No, that's about it," said Battler, saluting. They all saluted back, and they walked over to the Mess Hall to get some food.

"This salad isn't even green…" said Star. "Well," said the pony that was dishing out the food, "The daisies are green…" "Daisies aren't supposed to be green!" exclaimed Whirlwind. "They are in the army, apparently," said the pony. Star simply sighed as she was dished out her food. She grabbed a glass of water, and she wasn't sure whether the water glass had stains on it or the water had stuff in it. Either way, Star didn't much care. She picked her tray up with her magic and trotted over to her usual table to eat. "May I join you?" asked Lasso rhetorically. Then she sat down and started eating her food. "I think the cook is still under the terrible misconception that _soup_ is a _solid object_," said Sketchy as she sat down with her tray of food, among it a bowl full of soup (at least, that's what the cook had told her it was). As Bubble sat down, she carried a tray with a glass of orange juice on it. "Ah," said Bubble as she took a sip of the juice, "Nothing like a glass of OJ you can really sink your teeth into…"

~1 day prior: Ponyville, Equestria

"Miss Rainbow Dash? Your recovery has been faster than expected, your wings and neck have healed, and you are ready to fly," said Nurse Redheart. This was great news for Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, Sun, Sunset, Moon and Morning as well as Commander Armory had come to help out. It was mid-afternoon, 2:00-ish, and Rainbow's wing cast had been off for a day and a half now. Her neck brace was taken off not two hours ago, and she zipped over to the other end of the room. "Well," Rainbow seemed to be talking to her wings, "You're working so far… Now let's go on a real spin, shall we?"

"NO DOUBLE RAINBOOMS!" Nurse Redheart screamed after Rainbow. Rainbow stopped, nodded, then asked, "I assume normal rainbooms are fine?" The nurse nodded shakily, biting her lip. Then she stated, "Possibly. I wouldn't suggest it, it's pretty dangerous." "Danger is my middle name," said Rainbow Dash smugly, doing a couple loops before flying up some more. A stabbing pain flew through her ribs as she flew, out of breath. "I've got to work out more when I get back," said Rainbow, making a mental note to herself. Then she went into a few, egg-shaped loops to build up speed, then flew straight down. This would help a good bit, gravity always helped these things. The aura formed around Rainbow's hooves, the familiar burning sensation put a smile on Rainbow's face.

The rainboom happened immediately, effortlessly. Rainbow Dash drew her rainbow trail across the sky in an arc shape, slowly decreasing in speed as she neared the other end of Ponyville and then speeding over to the Eastern end with her remaining speed, still quite high up. When she got back, she used her wings like a parachute to slow down to a stop, hovered for a few seconds, and dropped the three feet to the ground. "I knew you could do it!" said Sun. "I knew I could do it, too," said Rainbow, "But I need to do some more cardio. I've fallen behind on that." Moon rolled her eyes and said, "You and your athletics…"

"There are only a few more enemy soldiers in Ponyville," said Sunset. "I heard that you made a rainbow nuclear explosion thing while Applejack had you destroy an old barn of hers a while back," said Scootaloo, "Maybe you could do that to scare 'em off!" "That's a pretty good idea," said Sun, "But there's more than a barn-full. Two may work better…" "I'll help too," said Moon, "I'm not exactly a great flier, but I'll do what I can." "Great," said Rainbow, "The trick is that it's just a rainboom, but it happens immediately when you hit the ground. Leaves a crater the size of a small house. It's all in the timing, really." "I don't exactly know how to rainboom," said Moon. "Fine," said Rainbow, "Because you won't be doing any rainbooms. I'd assume something more along the lines of a moonboom from you." Moon, who didn't exactly feel like arguing, simply nodded.

The three pegasi, Sun, Moon and Rainbow, flew over to the last enemy camp. There were at least two hundred soldiers there. "Ready?" asked Rainbow, flying up to about three miles high, above all the clouds. Sun and Moon came with her. "You sure this is safe?" asked Moon. "Nope!" exclaimed Rainbow, but before anypony could say anything else, Rainbow dived down and started building up speed. Sun dived immediately afterward, and Moon dove after her sister did. Moon had fleeting thoughts about why she shouldn't have done this, but she didn't have much time to think. The white aura surrounded her front hooves, and she shouted to Sun, "Is this supposed to happen?!" over the wind. Sun nodded and squinted harder, blinking the plasma out of her eyes. And they both flew even faster.

Rainbow screamed at them over the wind once they were about a half a mile away, "SPACE OUT! AND FOLLOW MY LEAD!" They spaced about twenty feet apart from one another and darted their eyes over to look at Rainbow Dash. The auras around each of them encompassed their entire bodies and each of them were being squeezed into 'the tube'. The next few seconds, right as they hit the ground, slowed down so the seconds felt like whole minutes to Moon. She felt her hooves touch the ground, and that very instant there was a massive booming noise and the ground disappeared under her.

When Moon opened her eyes again, she was in a twenty-foot-wide crater. A large mushroom comprised of dirt, dust and her sonic moonboom filled the sky… wait. "A Sonic Moonboom!" exclaimed Moon, ecstatic. "Yep," said Sun, "I did one too, so did Rainbow. But then again, the last one's hardly news."

"Ponyville has been taken for the Solar Empire!" exclaimed Armory to her troops, "To Canterlot!"

~Back in Canterlot, 1600 hours military time (4:00 pm)

After they finished lunch, they heard over the speakers their commander speaking. "Ponyville has been taken," she said, "And the new recruits will be arriving any minute."

"This is gonna be GREAT!" exclaimed Bubble, bouncing up and down in place on the outskirts of their camp. "_Whoa…_" Sketchy said in awe. "They're here?" asked Star. "I don't know," said Bubble, "But that rainbow thingy is really pretty!"

Rainbow Dash, pulling a gigantic, enclosed chariot with the rest of them inside, had recently performed a sonic rainboom. She looped around several times, almost making a small rainbow-colored tornado. Then she skidded to a stop right in front of Star Sparkle and her buddies. "Hi! I'm Bubble Gum, you can call me Bubble, and this is our very own unit! We've prepared a tent for you and everything Rainbow Dashie! I heard tons about you, we've made every preparation for you, and we're super-duper happy to see you ponies here!" exclaimed Bubble. "You remind me of my friend Pinkie Pie," said Rainbow, walking over to the chariot door and opening it, and the first pony that walked, or rather, bounced out was…

"Pinkie Pie!" exclaimed Bubble. "Pinkie?" asked Rainbow, "How'd you get here? I don't remember…" "You're just gonna have to figure that out yourself, smart cookie!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, bouncing up to Bubble, "How are you? Good?" "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Bubble, excitement overflowing through her. "You heard of me?" asked Pinkie, examining Bubble's fluffy mane. "Absolutely-tootly!" Bubble said happily, nodding profusely, "More than just heard of you! I'm your biggest fan!" Suddenly, Pinkie's muzzle twitched. "That means you're gonna meet somepony important soon, right?" asked Bubble, having memorized all of this. "Yesserooni!" exclaimed Pinkie, "I just don't know who it is yet!" Right then, Commander Battler walked up to Pinkie Pie and asked, "So, you're that pony that Bubble has been talking about since she got here, right? You're Pinkie Pie?" "Yes-indeedily!" Pinkie said excitedly and mock-bowed, "At your service. And you must be that important pony that I was gonna meet soon!" "Pinkie Sense?" asked Star sarcastically. Pinkie nodded, grinning widely. "Come on, Pinkie Pie," said Bubble, "You must be hungry! I know just the thing: they're still serving lunch in the Mess Hall, you can come get something in there!" "Don't forget me!" exclaimed Rainbow, unhitching the saddle that latched her to the chariot.

Bubble prepared everything for Pinkie Pie, so much so that Pinkie felt like royalty. Rainbow, Sunset, Sun, Moon and Morning were there as well, and Rainbow was being cooed over by all the resident authorities, but she continued to inform everypony that Sun, Sunset, Moon and Morning were the real ones to thank. This was replied to usually by a couple incoherent stuttered words before a quick "Thanks" to whichever one was closest and then a stupid excuse to leave.

"You ponies always have the food like this?" asked Sun, used to the nice food they had back in Fillydelphia. "I've had worse," said Sunset, used to the orphanage and the streets. "How about you, Morning?" asked Moon. Morning simply nodded and continued eating, not wishing to brag. Moon shrugged and took a sip of the water, then almost spit it out right then and there. "Ugh," Moon said as a shiver ran down her body, "This tastes _terrible_!" "Yeah, it's like that here most of the time," said Sketchy, sipping her glass of water slowly, "If you sip it like this, most of the little white things stay in the glass." "Aren't you worried these things may not be completely clean?" asked Sun. "Nah," said Bubble, sitting next to Pinkie Pie who sat at the table with the rest of them, taking a good look into an empty glass nearby, "Whatever it is that's sitting in the bottom there is still alive." Then everypony got a good laugh as they finished up eating their food.


	25. Inspiration

**Short but inspirational chapter, as the title suggests. Short but awesome note above it, too.**

* * *

About halfway through breakfast, Commander Battler came over and asked, "What are you doing?" "Having a good laugh!" exclaimed Pinkie, not accustomed to life in the military. Taken aback by Pinkie's statement but keeping her temper under control to keep from hurting an Element User, she simply said, "Well then, do it more quietly!" Then she stormed off. However, she only got a few steps before a huge booming noise erupted from someplace not fifty feet away from the Mess Hall. "That's not a rainboom," said Rainbow Dash. "Everypony get down! Get under a table!" exclaimed the Commander.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and dashed out of the Mess Hall tent. "Where's she going?!" asked Star. "To protect and be _loyal to_ her country," said Pinkie Pie, putting on a determined look as she stepped out from under the table and cantered out the door. She shouted inside, "You coming or not?!" right before she left. "If Pinkie's coming, I'm coming too!" exclaimed Bubble, running after Pinkie and Rainbow out the door. "She's gonna get herself killed!" exclaimed Whirlwind. "I know," said Star. "Let's go!" exclaimed Sun and Sunset at practically the same moment. "We're coming!" exclaimed Moon and Morning at the same instant as well. Then they all ran out the door. "If there's one thing we've learned from Rainbow Dash," said Morning quietly to the rest of them as she walked slowly out the door, "It's that you've got to be loyal, no matter the costs. You see those scrapes on Rainbow's armor and the scar on her chest? She got those fighting for what she loved. Now, if you ponies aren't a mob of cowards, you're going to come with me out this door!" Morning collected quite the crowd as she marched out the door. Shells were firing this way and that, being fired by the enemy soldiers most likely.

"Whirlwind!" exclaimed Star from under the table, "What are you doing?!" "Being like Rainbow Dash," said Whirl, a determined look on her face.

~25 years back, in Canterlot, inside the home of Night Light

"Coming!" exclaimed Night Light, coming to the door and opening it to reveal her sister, "Oh, come in! Twilight's been waiting for so long for Star's next visit!" "Dew couldn't come this time," said Star Light, "She was sick. But Star came here because she wanted to play with her favorite cousin!" "Twilight?" asked Star as she walked in the door, she wasn't any more than 9. "Star!" exclaimed Twilight, two years younger than Star and without a cutie mark or a care in the world, "It's so nice to see you! You should see my spells; I've been working on levitating five books at once!" "Whoa!" exclaimed Star, "I'll come see, that's a great idea!"

They ran up the stairs to Twilight's bedroom, and Twilight stacked five books up individually with her levitation, a single book was easy for her now. Then, concentrating hard, she tried to levitate all five at once. After a few minutes, though, she slumped down on the floor. "I did it yesterday!" exclaimed Twilight in frustration. "Maybe a little air will help," said Star, "I'll go open the window." Star walked over to the window and tried to open it, it wouldn't open. She pushed and shoved, but it still wouldn't open. The she shoved her whole weight against the windows, and…

Star fell out the window backwards, just barely catching the ledge of the window. They were two stories up, and as Star looked down she panicked. "Twilight! Help!" she yelled. "I'm coming!" Twilight yelled to her cousin, running over to grab her hoof. "I can't hold on!" Twilight said after a few fruitless attempts to pull up her cousin with her own strength, "I'll go get my parents!" "No!" shouted Star, "if you let go, I'll fall!" Twilight, having only one other choice, grasped her cousin's hoof in her magic. "What are you doing?!" exclaimed Star, "You can't lift 5 books, how could you lift a 70-pound filly?!" "I've got to try," said Twilight concentrating as hard as she could as little sparks erupted from her horn and it glowed a red-violet.

The aura around Star grew stronger and stronger, encompassing more and more of the filly, holding her up. Twilight gritted her teeth, sweating profusely. When the aura covered all of Star's body, Twilight threw her head back, stamping her front hooves on the ground. Star sailed through the window, landing on top of Twilight. "You… you saved my life!" exclaimed Star, getting up and helping Twilight up. Twilight's bangs were coated in sweat, not to mention her face. Her ears were flopped down by her head; her horn was still glowing dully as it cooled off from the comparatively huge magic surge that had recently flowed through it. "Worth it," said Twilight, getting up to hug her cousin. "You're the best cousin ever!" exclaimed Star, returning the hug. "You know," said Star, contemplating, "If you didn't get your cutie mark for that, I'm really not sure how amazing you're gonna be when you grow up, Twilight…"

~back in the present, in Canterlot

"You coming, Star?"

"Yeah."


	26. This One's For You

Whirlwind and Star ran outside into the shell fire, and Whirlwind took off. Star made herself a magical shield, looking down to her flank shortly after she did so and saying to herself quietly, imagining how similar it was to her cousin Twilight's, "This one's for you, Twilight." Normally, a feat like what Star was about to do would be impossible, but the positive feelings she felt flowed through her and enhanced her magic as well as the fact that her armor enhanced her magic slightly. Her hooves dug deep into the ground below her, the cobbled stone road crumbling beneath the sheer weight of her spell.

One, two, three… ten… auras surrounded Star's horn, covering it in a shimmering crimson. "And…" stuttered Star slowly, quietly, putting significant effort into even speaking for how hard she was working on her spell, "This one's for you, Dew!" Star squinted, gritting her teeth and putting at least twenty more auras around her horn, glowing like a crimson sun… a star… just like in her name. A gigantic shield surrounded the entirety of the camp, and Star summoned several hundred magical, explosive weapons and dumped them down around the edge of the camp. "Those ponies are gonna regret even coming here," Star thought to herself. She could sense everything now: Lasso tackling the Lunar Republic soldiers on the ground with her sword and her lasso, Whirlwind taking any incoming magical missiles with her shield and tornado techniques, Bubble bouncing on the heads of the enemies to knock them unconscious, Sketchy shoving through the large crowds with her sword in her magic, Pinkie Pie bouncing along with Bubble, Rainbow Dash taking out several hundred at once with her rainbooms every half hour or so. But that was all nothing compared to Star's magical weaponry.

"Everypony get out of the way! Into the force field!" Star sent a telepathic message to everypony in the area why may be affected that wasn't the enemy. As soon as Star made absolutely sure everypony she cared about was inside, she powered the force field up twenty times more, thrusting the enemy away. Then she put out the real shocker: literally. Star Sparkle had the first part of her name for a reason: she had minor control over the weather in the area around her. She summoned several thousand thunder clouds, but then she sensed another pony fly out of the area. "A gray young mare… a pegasus… dark gray, fluffy mane… she's helping with the thunder clouds! But… how does she do that without being shocked?!" thought Star. "Thunder Cloud, at your service," shouted the pegasus over the magic's noise, flying over to her and saluting. "Just keep doing what you were doing, it helps a lot," Star sent a telepathic message for lack of ability to talk. It would have been drowned out by the magic anyways.

"I'm on it!" exclaimed Thunder, flying up to continue placing the clouds directly above the highly concentrated enemy areas. "You appear to be immune to the lightning coming directly from the clouds," Star sent her message to Thunder. Thunder simply thought, "Yeah, that's my special talent," and Star heard her. "You can fire the spell to set off the clouds now," thought Thunder, "I'm safe above them all." Star confirmed her and then shut off the telepathic signal exchange. Star then set off her spell, and she heard the lightning crack overhead, several thousand bolts at once. Star tensed up at the very sound of it but stood her ground, her hooves pressing even harder into the ground as a few stray, secondary bolts that were not aimed and couldn't have been hit the shield and she had to reinforce it.

Star continued sending the signal until the clouds were fresh out of thunder to roll and lighting to crack. It had been at least two hours of straight, hard magic, and Star's strength was fading, fast. She struggled not to stop her protection spell altogether. She suddenly started thinking of Whirlwind… she sensed that she was inside the shield, but she didn't know why else. "She was the one who got me into all of this," she thought to herself, justifying her various random thoughts, "Or maybe it's just because I'm tired." Suddenly, behind closed eyes, Star felt a hoof on her shoulder.

"Star?" asked Whirlwind, "You're really great, you know. All the enemies have almost evacuated the area, and by the area, I mean all of Canterlot. They're leaving now. But… I was wondering if you wanted a little help." Star opened her eyes just a smidgen, just enough to see Whirl right next to her. "It's… getting dark," said Star, putting huge amounts of effort into speaking, "It's… going to get… cold soon…" "True," said Whirlwind, "Here, this might help." She wrapped her wing around Star, tilting Star's head down and looking down as well so Star could tap into her magic reservoir. It was relatively small, as all pegasus reservoirs usually are, but it was useful nonetheless. "This thing is gonna have to get bigger," thought Whirlwind, Star heard her thoughts because she was tapped into her magic. Star nodded then thought, "But I don't have any strength left do so…"

"You do now," said Whirlwind, wrapping her hooves around Star's neck and holding her tightly. A magical surge caused the shield to increase in a huge amount. "You trying to encompass all of Canterlot?" thought Whirlwind. Star thought, "That'd be nice…" "Okay," thought Whirl, "Then follow my lead." She smiled, leaned in and pressed her lips against Star's. Star wrapped her hooves around Whirl, their shield now encompassing, literally, the entire city. In fact, screw the city; it was going more towards the entire mountain.

When they finally expelled all the enemy soldiers from the entire mountain, Star and Whirl collapsed. "You… did great…" said Star. "You… you did great too," said Whirl, "I think Twilight would be happy with you now, Star." "I…" Star stuttered, "How'd you…" "Magic reservoirs, remember?" asked Whirl. "Well, lookie what we've got here…"

"Pinkie Pie?!" exclaimed Star and Whirl pretty much in synch. "Yesserooni!" Pinkie, "Oh, and I get to plan the wedding. I've done it before, you know!" "Pinkie," said Lasso, "I don't think…" "What do you think, Star?" asked Whirl. "Someday," said Star, sighing, "Someday…"


	27. To Fillydelphia at the Speed of Sound!

The next morning, at breakfast, they heard an announcement over the loudspeakers. "We're moving again!" said their CO, "This time we're going to where the fighting's worst: Fillydelphia." At the very mention of her hometown, Sun felt happier. However, it wouldn't last long, for just then she realized the context. "The fighting's worst in… Fillydelphia?" Sun asked, worried. Moon nodded. Their parents had gone back there after Ponyville was taken for their side. "I've never been there," said Bubble, "But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. I grew up in Baltimare, so I don't think it'll be too much different, it's another big city after all." "I… grew up there…" said Moon. "Cool!" exclaimed Whirl, "You can guide us around! That is, after we've taken it. First we're gonna have to fight there. Regardless, I think you two are gonna be really useful when we get there!" "That's not gonna take too long," said Rainbow Dash. "Any available pegasi to help me pull the chariot? There really aren't that many ponies here, I think I can take 'em all if I've got some help. Caution: I go fast, and I don't want any dead weight."

Whirlwind raised her hoof. "I'll help, Rainbow," said Whirlwind. "Great! Any other volunteers?" asked Rainbow. Sun and Moon raised their hooves as well. "That's more like it!" exclaimed Rainbow, "Come on, everypony, let's get going, we'll be there before nightfall!" With that, everypony walked outside and climbed into the chariot. It was snug, but it fit all of them. Right before Sunset got onto the chariot, Sun walked up to her. "See you when we get there," said Sunset. "One for the road?" asked Sun. "Sure," said Sunset, giving Sun a kiss. And with that, Sunset got into the chariot and shut the door. "You ready?" asked Rainbow, latching Sun, Moon and Whirlwind onto the chariot. "Yep!" exclaimed Sun. "If you say so…" said Moon. "Absolutely!" stated Whirlwind exuberantly. "Well then," said Rainbow, latching herself onto the chariot, "Let's go!"

She took off, and shortly afterwards, Whirlwind, struggling to keep up, said, "You usually go this fast?!" "No…" said Rainbow, "Usually I'm going a whole lot faster. But with all this weight, it's kinda hard to go any faster." "You talking about the chariot?" asked Whirl. "Uh… yeah…" lied Rainbow. "We can go faster," said Sun and Moon in unison, "Do you want us to?" "You two really are twins, in every possible sense of the word…" contemplated Rainbow, "And… yeah. That'd be great." "Okay, then," said Sun. "We're going," said Moon. "Keep up, okay?" asked Rainbow to Whirlwind. Whirl nodded.

Getting into the usual flying position, Moon, Sun and Rainbow each had their trails. "Whoa…" thought Whirl, "These three are _fast_." "Usually I specialize in tornados and stuff like that," said Whirl, "But I think I can do this too." "We're gonna have to build up speed straight up, we won't be able to do any loops," said Rainbow, pointing to the chariot behind her. "I know," said Sun and Whirl in unison, "Jinx!" "Okay," said Rainbow, "On a count of three, we're gonna speed up 2x. 'Kay?" Everypony nodded.

"One," Rainbow started, beginning the countdown slowly.

"Two," she continued.

"Three!"

The chariot sped up twofold, Rainbow in the lead and Moon, Sun and Whirl close behind. Whirl squinted, then she overheard something from the chariot in back. Listening carefully, Whirl overheard this:

A static-coated voice over a walkie-talkie, talking frantically, said, "We're about to lose Fillydelphia. We need you ponies to step up your speed and get here within the hour. Your unit. It's… our only hope…" Then there was a crash and then pure static. "Can you go any faster?!" Whirl heard Star's voice through the relatively thick walls of the chariot, "My parents are there… they were on vacation there and…" Looking back, Whirl said, "Yeah." Then, talking to her friends up front, she said, "We're gonna have to get there within the hour." "That would require…" said Rainbow, not exactly being an egghead but knowing enough math to be a good flier, "That would require going above the speed of sound! Whirl… are you sure you can handle that?!" "No," said Whirl, "But I've got to try."

"You guys holding up okay?!" shouted Rainbow over the wind. "Ugh… " said Whirl through gritted teeth, panting for breath and struggling to get the strength to nod. "What's happening?!" shouted Moon, pointing at the chariot behind them. It was glowing. Glowing in a multitude of colors. Then every ounce of light poured itself into Whirl. From her previous speed where she didn't even have a trail behind her, now Whirl was nearing the speed of sound, a smug look on her face. Rainbow, Moon and Sun, happy to be going faster now, flew up to Whirl. "You ponies ready?!" shouted Whirl through her smug smile. Everypony nodded. "Then…" Whirl yelled definitively over the wind, an aura brimming around her forehooves, "Let's do this thing."

"Star will be happy with me now," thought Whirl, the very thought of her friend brightening the look on her face and the feeling in her heart. "I already am," Whirl heard Star's voice in her head. Whirl subconsciously wondered what was happening, then she remembered there was a relatively advanced spell that allowed unicorns to establish a telepathic connection between themselves and any other pony within a few hundred feet. "We're gonna have to rainboom at the same exact instant," said Rainbow, snapping Whirl out of her thoughts. Whirl nodded. "It's like flying through cake mix at this speed," Whirl telepathically told Star. "How you pegasi manage all that I've got no clue," said Star inside Whirl's head. "How you unicorns manage all that magic stuff I've got no clue either," Whirl thought. "Focus on flying," thought Star, "Not me." "You're the _reason_ I'm flying in the _first_ place," thought Whirl before shouting aloud over to the others, "If this thing is gonna happen," her aura surrounded all of her now, "It might as well happen now."

~Meanwhile, inside the chariot

"These ponies are going really fast!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "_Yeah,_" said Lasso, "I kinda wish they'd slow down a smidge." "Just a smidge…" said a worried Bubble, putting her hooves about an inch apart to signify her point. "If they did that," said Morning definitively, "We'd never reach Fillydelphia in time. I say," she continued, starting up a spell, "We should help out. CALLING ALL UNICORNS! HELP ME CAST THIS! ALL OF EVERYPONY! EVERYPONY HAS A MAGIC RESERVOIR, LET'S PUT 'EM TO GOOD USE!" Every unicorn on the chariot walked up to Morning and asked some version of, "How can we help? What spell is this?" "Okay," said Morning rather loudly, "We're going to cast a spell so the chariot, along with every single pony on it, will become near weightless. Star? Send a telepathic message to Whirl and tell her what we're gonna do. I know you know the spell. Everypony else? Group together. We're only going to cast this twice, once on the chariot and once again on the group of ponies on it."

Everypony sat in a large but organized mob, unicorns on the inside, both mares and stallions, everypony else on the outside so that each unicorn had one other pony to use as a magic store, and with Morning in the very middle. Morning began to cast her spell, and all the unicorns pitched in, tapping magic stores from all the other ponies there. Bubble stood right next to Pinkie Pie, on the other side was a bright red earth pony with a straight, light brown mane. Right in front of her was a cerulean unicorn stallion with a wavy, ice blue mane with white streaks in it. Suddenly, the stallion collapsed, probably from exhaustion. "Get up, get up," thought Pinkie worriedly. "We need everypony to help!" exclaimed Morning, trying to wake him. Suddenly Pinkie recognized him as he lay on the floor by his cutie mark. This was one of her best friends, Pokey Pierce. "We have a telepathic thingy set up between us, right?" Pinkie asked. Morning nodded. "Remember me?" Pinkie thought. She got nothing in response. Then, without the slightest ounce of a physical sign, she heard Pokey's thick voice in her head, "Pinkie?"

"You've got to get up!" Pinkie thought. Pokey opened his eyes, and he struggled to stand up. Pinkie helped him up, then he started up his spell again, his horn glowing a dark navy blue. "I need some help here!" he thought. "On it!" Pinkie thought. Being the Element of Laughter had its upsides: a huge and constant stream of positive energy. She poured some of this in, but it obviously wasn't enough and she let the floodgates loose. Her hair deflated from its usual fluffy state and the smile disappeared from her face, her colors darkening significantly. A little, neon pink ball appeared on her chest, summoning every ounce of happiness inside her and pouring it into the spell. A little, thin, pink wire connected that spot to Pokey's aura, turning it slightly pinkish. "Disregard anything mean I think from now on," Pinkie thought. Pokey heard her and nodded.

Only just then did Pokey realize what Pinkie had done when he heard thoughts like, "When I get back to Ponyville, I'm not even going to bother with anypony. I'm going back to the rock farm," and "As soon as I'm done with this spell and we're back on the ground, I'm leaving this pathetic place. These ponies make me sick." He knew that she'd just sacrificed her happiness and perhaps her sanity to help him.

Star finished sending her telepathic message and made sure it got through to them. Immediately she figured out what spell they were casting and chipped in. Then she felt something… off. An impossible amount of happiness was being poured into the spell, which meant it was being sapped from somepony. She looked around and saw Pinkie with her hair perfectly straight and what advanced unicorns called 'the heartstring' which connected feelings directly into another's spells. "Dear sweet Celestia help her…" thought a thoroughly shocked Star, "But since she's not here, I'll have to do." Star poured every ounce of her own positivity into Pinkie, trying to help her. But it was no use, her happiness was being sapped too fast. Before she became a monster, Star stopped trying. "She's gonna have to go this alone," Star thought shamefully, continuing to pour her magic into the spell.

~Meanwhile, on the outside of the chariot

"We're really close to the speed of sound!" shouted Rainbow over the incessant whistling of the wind. "I can't go any faster!" exclaimed Sun. "Me either!" Moon shouted. And Whirl didn't have the strength to speak and simply shook her head. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the weight they'd each been carrying simply flew off, and at that very instant every single one of them broke the sound barrier with room to spare. "It worked!" thought Whirl. "It sure did," Star's voice echoed through Whirl's head. "To Fillydelphia at the speed of sound!" Whirl screamed. Her voice was heard by nopony, not even her, but she didn't care. She was happy.

… For now.


	28. Pink-a-MEAN-a

When they arrived at Fillydelphia, they saw what they'd heard just hours ago: It was about to be taken by the Lunar Republic. They landed in a tiny Solar Empire camp on the outskirts of town, coincidentally near Moon and Sun's home. The strangest bit about this unit is that it didn't seem to _have_ a resident CO. Bubble pointed this out, as well as trying to cheer up Pinkie on several occasions. Pinkie, or should I be calling her Pinkamena now that her hair is straight, continued to be mad, sad and, as the ending of her name implies, mean.

"Wanna sit with me, Pinkie?" asked Bubble. "Call me Pinkamena…" said Pinkamena, simply turning away. "Okay," said Bubble, starting over, "Wanna sit with me, Pinkamena?" "No," she said, taking her tray with barely any food on it and walking over to a corner. "Then I'll sit with you!" Bubble exclaimed, trotting over and sitting beside Pinkamena. "Go away," Pinkamena mumbled. "What can I do to make you happy?" asked Bubble. "Leaving me alone would be a good start," said Pinkamena, glaring at Bubble. "How about I brush my hair straight like yours and be all depressed all the time?" Bubble asked. "Hmm…" contemplated Pinkamena, "Sure." Bubble pulled a hairbrush out of nowhere and started brushing her hair, styling it just like Pinkamena. "You're one serious fan of me, aren't you?" asked Pinkamena. "I'm not really a serious fan, I'm a…" started Bubble before realizing that if she was going to be like Pinkamena, she was going to be exactly like her. Then she started over, "Yes."

"So…" started Bubble. "It's another dumb day," said Pinkamena, refusing to make conversation as she sipped her OJ. "I've been thinking," said Bubble, "What if you had a friend who was really depressed, and you didn't want her to be depressed anymore? What would you do?" "I'd tell them," started Pinkamena, scratching her chin with her hoof while Bubble anticipated enthusiastically and her hair poofed up again, "To buck off."

Just then Bubble realized what had happened. Her hair deflated on its own and her colors became much darker. "FINE!" exclaimed Bubble, "IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE MEAN, BE MEAN! SEE IF I CARE!" Then she stormed out of the Mess Hall and slammed the door. She stormed across the comparatively tiny camp, not sure of where she was going. "Bubble? Are you okay?" she heard a familiar voice.

"No! Just leave me alone…" she screamed at whoever it was. "Okay…" said the voice, "I was just thinking you could help me out with something." "Okay," said Bubble, "But make it quick!" "I have this friend, she's really depressed, and I don't want her to be depressed anymore. What should I do?" asked the voice. Bubble turned around to see who it was. "Rainbow Dash?" asked Bubble, more confused than surprised. Rainbow nodded. "Hmm…" she contemplated aloud, getting back on topic. She remembered what Pinkamena had said to her own asking of the exact same question, and then she remembered what the old Pinkie Pie would have said.

Bubble's mind had a tug of war over what to say. Half of her wanted to tell her exactly what the old Pinkie Pie would have said, namely, "I'd throw her a party, of course!" However, the other half wanted to follow completely in her favorite pony's hoofsteps and say something like what Pinkamena had said. She ended up saying a rather convoluted version of the latter, "I'd tell her to buck off! Of course!" Then she shook her head and stormed off in a huff. "What an idiotic idea," thought Bubble, walking to the edge of the camp. Suddenly she heard something. It sounded like… magic…

Bubble looked all around, trying to find the source of the noise. She didn't dare speak, that might attract… unwanted attention. She brushed her mane behind her ear and darted her eyes left and right. Suddenly she heard a whooshing noise as a magical weapon, namely a spear, came rushing toward her. Normally, she would have jumped out of the way. But she had hardly any energy and it pierced her right through the stomach. Limping badly, she summoned the only power she had: the power to summon random objects out of thin air. She pulled an automatic rifle out from behind her back and shot a hailmerry of bullets in every which direction, soon she heard a thumping noise. Biting her lip in her agony, Bubble pulled the spear out of her side whereupon it disintegrated into some sparks of magical dust. Then she limped halfway to camp before collapsing.

Luckily for Bubble, Rainbow Dash was nearby when it happened and spotted her immediately after she fell. Rainbow picked her up and flew her over to camp. She flew inside the infinitesimal hospital there and screamed, "We've got a gigantic magic wound… can somepony help her?! NOW MAYBE?!" Bubble, who was squinting as if she was about to kill somepony and biting her lip so much it bruised and bled, was somehow still conscious. Probably due to her excessive lip biting. "You're going to be all right," said Rainbow comfortingly. Through gritted teeth, Bubble managed to utter, "Well then hurry it up, I'm dying here!" Rainbow couldn't help but smile a tiny bit at Bubble's wry humor. "NOW?!" she screamed. "I'm coming!" exclaimed the nurse, running over to Bubble. "We're going to put her under so she won't feel any pain as she's being bandaged," said the other nurse who held a mask in her magic, "She's felt enough already." Bubble nodded as the mask was put over her face. She shut her eyes and was asleep almost instantly.

Immediately the first nurse, a white mare with a blue mane with dark blue streaks in it and a cutie mark of a rolled bandage, took a rolled-up bandage in her icy blue magical aura and lifted Bubble off the bed slightly, bandaging her wound and placing a huge wad of cotton that was drenched in a hydrogen peroxide solution over her bleeding wound and then covering it in the bandages. She dabbed a couple drops of peroxide onto Bubble's bleeding lip which foamed a little before the nurse dabbed it right off again. "Now she just needs some rest to heal," said the nurse, walking out.


	29. Come On and Smile!

In a few days Bubble was healed, and when she woke up she was greeted with a "How are you feeling?" from the nurse and a "You took out a whole camp of enemy soldiers, you know," from Whirlwind. "Fine," said Bubble with significant irritation, "And I don't care. Leave me alone." "Remember what I said yesterday?" asked Rainbow, flying over to Bubble's bed and sitting at her bedside. Bubble scanned her memory, and then she recounted the events. Rainbow asking her the same question she'd asked Pinkie, Bubble storming off with an incoherent answer and a huff, she was so depressed she couldn't move in time to save her own hide, and she got shot. She barely remembered what happened after that, but she remembered the colors of the rainbow and a pair of magenta eyes staring down on her, not hardly, actually rather caringly. She looked over at Rainbow again, and she saw the same pair of magenta eyes, staring at her the same way. "Yeah," Bubble replied, smiling for the first time in several days, but only for an instant, then she continued with the same irritation as before, "What's it to ya?" Rainbow sighed and said with another of her caring, gentle smiles, "I think I know what _Pinkie Pie_ would do…" Bubble literally had to hit herself, rather hard, with her hoof in the face to keep from becoming perfectly happy and chipper right then and there. Eyes half-shut in boredom, Bubble asked, "What is it?" while smoothing her hair over one eye with her hooves.

"I think Pinkie Pie would say, 'I'd throw her a party, of course!'" said Rainbow, mimicking her best friend's voice all too well. "That's exactly what I was thinking she'd say," thought Bubble. "You know Pinkamena well, don't you, Rainbow Aurora Dash?" she asked aloud. "How do you know my full name?" asked Rainbow. "I have my ways," said Bubble smugly. "Well," said Rainbow, "Yes. I know her well, she's my _friend_. And as _friends_, I think _we_ should talk." "Fine," said Bubble, "Let's talk." "You know that song Pinkie sang a little while back?" asked Rainbow, "What did she call it… went like this."

"My name is Pinkie Pie," started Rainbow singing. "Hello!" exclaimed Bubble. She didn't mean that to come out, it just _did_. "And I am here to say," Rainbow continued, mimicking Pinkie's voice. "How ya doing?" exclaimed Bubble, smiling. "I'm gonna make you smile and I…" sang Rainbow right before Bubble joined in, "Will brighten up your day!" "It doesn't matter now," "What's up?" "If you are sad or blue," "Howdy!" "Because cheering up my friends is just what Pinkie's here to do!"

After they sang the entire song, Bubble bounced out of bed, seemingly unaware of her wound. Her hair was poofy again and she was grinning ear to ear. "So," said Bubble, "How are we going to help Pinkie?" "I have an idea," said Rainbow with a smile, "That just might work."

The next day at lunch, there were 10 ponies that looked just a little out of place. Why? They all had a fluffy hairdo that perfectly mimicked Pinkie Pie's to every detail. Rainbow Dash, Bubble Gum, Sunset Sky, Morning Ice, Sun Rider, Moon Pool, Lasso Loop, Sketchy, Whirlwind and Star Sparkle were there. They were sitting there, eating lunch, not together but quite far apart, sitting with other unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies as they were. Suddenly, as Bubble finished her last sip of juice, she tapped the first few notes on her glass with her spoon of the Smile Song.

"My name is Pinkie Pie," sang Bubble, bouncing down the aisle. "Hello!" exclaimed Sun, popping out from behind Bubble. "And I am here to say," sang Sketchy, prancing down the next aisle over. "How ya doing?" asked Morning cheerfully, appearing on Sketchy's back and jumping off to stand beside her. "I'm gonna make you smile and I," sang Rainbow, flying overhead in circles. "Will brighten up your day!" they all sang together.

"It doesn't matter now," sang Sunset. "What's up?" said Sun, flying straight upwards very quickly. "If you are sad or blue," sang Star, bouncing up to Pinkamena and standing on the table in front of her. "Howdy!" exclaimed Lasso, her slight Western accent only adding to the theme as she jumped out from under the table to stand with Star. "Because cheering up my friends is just what Pinkie's here to do!" they all sang in unison. "Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile!" sang the pegasi, doing tiny loops overhead in perfect synch. "Yes I do!" exclaimed the unicorns and earth ponies, jumping up on the tables. "It fills my heart with sunshine all the while!" sang Bubble and Rainbow, their perfect imitations of Pinkie paying off. "Yes it does!" exclaimed Whirlwind, proceeding to vault off Rainbow's back into a series of barrel rolls in a giant circle around the ceiling. "And all I really need's a smile, smile, smile," sang everypony at once, forming a giant stacked triangle with Bubble on top, "From these happy friends of mine!"

Jumping off the top of the triangle, Bubble gave the subtle signal for the unicorns to pull translucent but not transparent, black shades over the windows, causing the room to get much darker. "It's true, some days are dark and lonely," sang Bubble, a worried and sad look on her face as she walked, slowly, over to Pinkamena. "And maybe you feel sad," sang Rainbow, coming around the other side and brushing Pinkamena's mane out from in front of her eye, "But Pinkie will be there to show you that it isn't that bad." "There's one thing that makes me happy," said everypony at once, marching down the aisles, "And makes my whole life worthwhile! And that's when I talk to my friends and get them to SMILE!"

Then everypony got up and started singing, pegasi flying through the air and unicorns spelling out, "SMILE" in all different colors of auras in the air, earth ponies bouncing down the aisles and table to table and everypony sang, "Come on everypony, smile, smile, smile, fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine! All I really need's a smile, smile, smile, from these happy friends of MINE!" And then everypony else kept singing while the 10 ponies who had Pinkie's hairstyle sang, "Yes, a perfect gift for me, is a smile as wide as a mile, to make me happy as can be!"

And at the end of the song, everypony drummed on the table as the 10 friends sang, "Smile, smile, smile, smile, SMILE! COME ON AND SMILE! COME ON AND…" they left out the last word. Pinkamena couldn't resist it anymore. She started glowing pink, her colors lightened and her hair poofed to the fullest poof of poofy poofiness! And that's NOT all, folks, because she put on a grin that looked like it would burst her face and she rocketed through the top of the tent, and when she landed she screamed (Sang? Sing-screamed?) the loudest, "_**SMILE!"**_ that anypony had ever heard or would ever hear.

"Pinkie!" exclaimed Bubble. "PINKIE!" exclaimed everypony else. "Thanks, everypony," said Rainbow, "We're really grateful." "We includes me, right?" asked Pinkie. "Absolutely," said Rainbow, wrapping a hoof around Pinkie's neck, "Glad to see you're back, Pinkie." "You too, Dashie!" exclaimed Pinkie. "I still hate that nickname…" mumbled Rainbow. "I know!" exclaimed Pinkie gleefully.


	30. This Is War

**Have a super-duper extra-long chapter just because that 30 is a BIG, ROUND number! Also, for your enjoyment, two songs! Whoever sends me a review linking both songs gets...**

…**Being awesome!**

* * *

"So," said Rainbow, "Any ideas on what to do to take Fillydelphia?" "My magic is just about tapped, and I'm not sure I can do that spell again unless there's some miracle for some time," said Star. "It's not like our sunbooms and moonbooms are gonna help any," said Sun, "But we'd be happy to do them anyways!" "Don't look at _me_!" exclaimed Morning, "I've done my share of miracles for a while yet!" "And it's not like we'd make much of a difference, honestly," said Lasso simply, referring to her and the rest of the gang. "You ponies underestimate the power of the PINK…" said Pinkie, "-ie Pie!" "What can you do?" asked Sunset, "No offense, but you're not a unicorn, so you can't use magic, and you're not a pegasus, so you can't fly…" "Think again on both accounts!" exclaimed Pinkie, pulling a few balloons out of nowhere and tying them around herself, using them to fly. "Check that," said an amazed Sunset.

"That still doesn't answer my question," said Rainbow, "Any ideas on how to take Fillydelphia?" "You know what I always say," said Pinkie, "There's nothing a good party can't solve!" She looked over at a crowd of rather confused ponies and said, "Trust me on this one."

"You girls remember that one Lunar Republic pony?" asked Pinkie. "You mean Winter Pearl?" asked Morning, "Sunset teleported her over here. She's been hanging in a cave nearby for some time… I've been bringing her food." "You are impressively kind," said Sun, "But that's not the point. Go on, Pinkie." "I was thinking," said Pinkie, "Remember the movie? Equestria Girls? Remember that song?" "WHAT SONG?!" Pinkie got a chorus of questions to that extent. "I'm going to have to copy-paste the transcript for you ponies, aren't I?!" exclaimed Pinkie, sighing, "Fine."

Pinkie took out a piece of paper and jotted down in pristine hoofwriting at the most ridiculous speed:

"Hey, hey, everypony

We've got something to say

We may seem as different

As the night is from day

But you look a little deeper

And you will see

That I'm just like you

And you're just like me.

Yeah!

Hey, hey, everypony

We're here to shout

That the magic of friendship

Is what it's all about

Yeah,

We thought we were different

As the night is from the day

Until we came together

Now we'll see a different way

So get up, get down,

If you're gonna come around!

We can work together

We'll be taking back the crown

So get up get down

'Cause it's gonna make a sound

If we work together

We will take back Celestia's crown!"

"This is my part!" Pinkie said happily as she noted it:

"Hey, hey hooves up now,

We're sending a message

To the crowd

Hooves way up

Then come down

We party together

All around"

"Now, Sunset, you'll do this part," announced Pinkie as she noted as such, then jotted down more notes:

"Generous, Honesty,"

"And Lasso, you're doing this part," Pinkie continued, noting more onto the paper which seemed to continue lengthening itself at her whim:

"Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty!"

"Now Morning, you're doing this," Pinkie said, jotting it down:

"With your help, now we will see…"

"This will be you, Dashie!" exclaimed Pinkie, noting some more:

"All that we can be!"

"Everypony here," Pinkie said.

"So get up, get down,

If you're gonna come around!

We can work together

We'll be taking back the crown!

So get up get down

'Cause it's gonna make a sound

If we work together

We will take back Celestia's crown!"

"And with any luck, we'll get everypony to sing with us for this part!" exclaimed Pinkie, "It worked in the movie!" "I still don't know what you're talking about, Pinkie," said Rainbow. Pinkie shrugged and jotted down more notes:

"Jump up make a sound (Hey!)

Stomp your hooves turn around

Start now, make a change,

Gonna come around

Jump up, make a sound (Hey!)

Stomp your hooves, turn around

Solar for the greater good,

Taking back the crown!

Jump up make a sound (Hey!)

Stomp your hooves turn around

Start now, make a change,

Gonna come around

Jump up, make a sound (Hey!)

Stomp your hooves turn around

Solar for the greater good,

Taking back the crown!"

"Is that the end?" asked Rainbow. Pinkie nodded. Suddenly a carriage pulled out in front. "I'll go check who it is," said Pinkie, bouncing out and leaving her scroll on the table. "RARITY?!" Pinkie exclaimed. "This must be a big thing if it surprises PINKIE," said Rainbow. "Somepony," said Rarity, "Sent me a message. She told me to come tut suite! As such, of course I obliged! Although, this could be less messy…" "And here I thought you were _out_ of miracles," said Whirlwind, talking to Star. "Apparently," said Star, "I had one left."

"You'd actually be _really _useful for this next thing, your fashion stuff and all," said Sun, contemplating. "I was told to be on the Lunar side of this thing," said Rarity, "After all, the armor is gorgeous." "Perfect," said Pinkie, "Not what I planned, it's better! We need more Lunar Empire ponies!" "I know a few," said Morning, "I'll get them." Then she ran off.

A half hour later Morning came back with about 8 Lunar Empire ponies, most of whom didn't know what they were doing there. Among them was Winter Pearl. "That's more than I expected," said Pinkie, "But the more the merrier! Now… the choreography…"

~The next day, slightly outside the camp

Everypony stood on the edge of their camp. The Lunar Empire ponies were actually carefully hidden among the enemies. Suddenly, though, Pinkie started stamping her hoof on the ground.

Tap. Tap, tap. Tap. Tap, tap.

There were about fifty feet between them and before this they were waiting for who would fire first. However, that very instant, they started singing.

The ponies came out from both sides and the rest of the Lunar Republic ponies were thoroughly confused. "Hey, hey, everypony!" they shouted, "We've got something to say! We may seem as different as the night is from day!" The Lunar and Solar ponies joined together and were dancing together, in gem-inlaid armor Rarity made. "But you look a little deeper, and you will see," they sang, pegasi flying overhead and, since they were outside, creating beautiful trails across the sky, "That I'm just like you, and you're just like me, YEAH!"

The entire Solar side stomped their front hooves on the ground twice, "bum, bum!" Sun and Moon performed their sonic booms sequentially, "boom, boom!" Unicorns set off magical fireworks in their specific sequence, "ba, ba, ba-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta-tum!" "Hey, hey, everypony!" they sang once more, "We're here to shout that the magic of friendship is what it's all about!" Party cannons shot this way and that, covering the ground and the ponies in streamers, confetti, and coating the already pegasus-trail-covered sky in balloons. "Yeah, we thought we were different as the night is from the day," the Solar and Lunar ponies sang, the 18 ponies dancing together in groups and pegasi spinning in circles in the air, unicorns shooting sparks up into the sky and earth ponies in charge, mainly, of the beat, "Until we came together, now we'll see a different way!". They jumped all over, and Lasso flung her… lasso… all over the place. At one point, she even managed to get it stuck on a pegasus hoof when they were going real fast and there was a bright orange earth pony attached to the back hoof of a pegasus by means of a rope flying across the sky. Quite the spectacle. "So get up, get down, if you're gonna come around! We can work together, we'll be taking back the crown!" they sang. And this random frenzy continued all through the chorus.

Then… then it was time for Pinkie's solo. Right before it, she literally _shot herself out of a party cannon_ and came out with a streamer in her face. But that didn't stop Pinkie, oh no. She quickly swept it aside _and danced and sang with a streamer on her head_ and loads of confetti in her mane and, for that matter, all over her. "Hey, hey, hooves up now!" she exclaimed, pulling balloons out of nowhere and tying them with ultra-pinkie speed, floating a few feet off the ground while she shoved her hooves in the air. "We're sending a message to the crowd! Hooves way up, then come down!" she exclaimed. Then she spun them in a circle and spun around so fast she flung confetti everywhere as she fell to the ground after untying the balloons as fast as she'd tied them and letting them float up. "Party together, all around!" she screamed while she did so.

"Generous, honesty," sang Sunset with the biggest grin on her face she'd ever had. "Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty!" sang Lasso in her country tone. "With your help, now we will see," sang Morning just barely loud enough for everypony to hear. Then Rainbow flew up in front of all of them and exclaimed, "All that we can be!"

Then everypony landed and did the dance together. "So get up, get down!" They jumped up in the air and then landed hard, stomping on the ground and leaning down. "If you're gonna come around!" They spun in a circle, on a single hoof mostly. "We can work together, we'll be taking back the crown!" Everypony joined hooves and several unicorns… actually more like twenty, created a crown image that perfectly replicated Celestia's crown which currently resided on Nightmare Moon's head. "So get up, get down," the pegasi took off, flying up high in the air, and everypony else leaned over and stomped on the ground. "Cause it's gonna make a sound," they shouted loudly, "If we work together, we will take back Celestia's crown!" Two Lunar Republic pegasi, both with purple hair, flew through the purple gem in the center of the magical holograph crown image and completed series of barrel rolls in opposite directions.

The Lunar Republic ponies all came over to their side and started singing to them, "Jump up, make a sound! Stomp your hooves, turn around! Start now, make a change, gonna come around!" The entire solar side sang, "Jump up, make a sound!" The Lunar ponies shouted, "Hey!" "Stomp your hooves, turn around!" the solar side continued, doing the dance that went with it, "Solar for the greater good, taking back the crown!"

By the second or third repetition, the Lunar Republic finally gave in to the singing and dancing and joined. "Jump up, make a sound!" shouted the Solar Empire. "Hey!" shouted the Lunar Republic. "Stomp your hooves," sang the Solar side. "Turn around!" sang the Lunar. "Start now, make a change, gonna come around!" they all screamed at once, "Jump up, make a sound!" "Hey!" "Stomp your hooves, turn around! Solar for the greater good, taking back the crown!"

After the song was over, there were SO MANY PONIES who simply threw off their Lunar armor and stuff and said, "I quit!" They threw their weapons into a pile with their armor and, later on, everypony had a bonfire with some wood they collected from a forest nearby in which they burnt the armor in a celebration of rebirth to a new world.

"I know what we should sing!" exclaimed Pinkie. "What?" asked a few other ponies. "This is war" said Pinkie. "A warning, to the people, the good and the evil," Pinkie started, everypony joining in, "This. Is. War." "To the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim," Rainbow sang, again everypony joining in, "This. Is. War." "It's the moment of truth," sang Lasso, "And the moment to lie." "The moment to live and the moment to die," sang Sunset. "The moment to fight," sang Bubble. "The moment to fight," sang Star. "To fight, to fight," sang Whirl when everypony joined for "TO FIGHT!"

"To the right," sang the Solar Empire ponies. "To the left," sang the Lunar Republic ponies. "We will fight to the death!" they sang. "To the edge of the earth," sang Pinkie's best friends, the 10 ponies who sang the Smile Song to cheer her up earlier. "It's a brave new world from the last to the first," sang Morning's friends, the 8 ponies from the Lunar Republic she helped when they were confused and scared. "To the right," sang the Lunar ponies. "To the left," sang the Solar ponies. "We will fight to the death!" they all sang together, "To the edge of the earth, it's a brave new world, IT'S A BRAVE NEW WORLD!" "Ooh, whoa," sang Lasso. "Ooh, whoa…" sang Winter.

"A warning to the prophet," sang Bubble, referring to Pinkie and her Pinkie Sense. "The liar, the honest," sang Rarity. "This. Is. War." Everypony sang that bit. Then Rainbow Dash flew up above the bonfire and screamed, "OH! TO THE LEADER," she turned to Commander Battler, "THE PARIAH," she turned to Winter, "THE VICTOR," she turned to Moon and Sun, "THE MESSIAH," she turned to Sunset and Morning, "THIS, IS, WAR, YEAH!"

"It's the moment of truth," sang Pinkie and Pokey, "And the moment to lie." "And the moment to live," sang Star and Whirl, "And the moment to die." "The moment to fight," sang the two twin Lunar ponies with the purple manes, namely, Rising Moon and Setting Moon. "The moment to fight," sang Moon and Sun. "To fight," sang Bubble. "To fight," sang Lasso. "TO FIGHT!" shouted everypony.

A few bars later, they got to Moon and Morning's favorite part. Moon picked up Morning and they flew over to a cloud, Morning casting a cloud walking spell and sitting on it to sing with Moon. "I do believe in the light," sang Moon. "Raise your hooves into the sky," sang Morning. "The fight is done," they sang together, "The war is won." They raised their forehooves toward the sky and sang, "Lift your hooves toward the sun." "Toward the sun," sang Sun and Sunset. "Toward the sun," sang Moon and Morning. The Lunar and Solar ponies in the background began chanting the chorus repetitively in the background as they continued. "Toward the sun," sang Pinkie and Bubble. "The war is won," sang Rarity and Winter.

"Fight, fight, fight, fight, FIGHT!" they exclaimed. The unicorns shot up their fireworks into the darkening sky as the sun set in pattern, "bum, bum, bum, bum-bum-bum!" "TO THE RIGHT! TO THE LEFT! WE WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH! TO THE EDGE OF THE EARTH, IT'S A BRAVE NEW WORLD, FROM THE LAST TO THE FIRST!" shouted the Solar ponies. "TO THE RIGHT! TO THE LEFT! WE WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH! TO THE EDGE OF THE EARTH, IT'S A BRAVE NEW WORLD, IT'S A BRAVE NEW WORLD, IT'S A…"

"BRAVE!" exclaimed the pegasi.

"NEW!" exclaimed the earth ponies.

"WORLD!" exclaimed the unicorns.

"Ooh, whoa," several rather quiet ponies sang in the background as the rest sang, "A brave new world! The war is won! The war is won!"

Then everypony joined in quietly for, "a brave, new, world…"


	31. Aurora

"We've got one more obstacle," said Rainbow Dash, "We need to find a way to defeat Nightmare Moon." "…I have an idea…" said Rising Moon. "What is it?" asked Sun. "New Elements," said Setting Moon, "Rising told me about it a little earlier." "You're going to _make_ new Elements of Harmony?!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, "How in Equestria do you DO that?!" "Gemstones," said Rising. "And a lot of magic," said Setting. "I have some ideas here," said Star, levitating a scroll over. "Service, Leadership, Discovery, Hope, Strength, Efficiency, Charisma, Practice, Enthusiasm, Perseverance, Skill, Observation, Protection," read Rainbow. "Interesting, but I don't know who could do this!"

"Commander Battler is the best leader I know," Bubble pointed out. "Okay, then," said Rising. "Take this to her, then," said Setting, giving Bubble a bright yellow gem to give to the Commander. "I think Bubble is the most enthusiastic pony I've ever seen in my life!" exclaimed Sketchy. She levitated over an ice blue gem. "Charisma is defined as 'strength of personality', and I think you've got it," said Star, bringing over a dark blue gemstone. "Ya are the most efficient pony ah know," said Lasso. She picked up and carried over a greenish gemstone and gave it to Star. "I think you deserve a reward for all that time spent on the field, helping us out with your impressive strength," said Sunset, levitating over a crimson gem to give to Lasso. "Everything you did for us was amazing," said Moon, "Your perseverance is some force to be reckoned with." She carried a chocolate colored gem over to Sunset. "For you," said Rising and Setting at once, handing each other tan and almost perfectly clear gemstones, signifying Discovery and Observation respectively.

After they'd all gotten their gemstones, there was one left. A sparkling fire ruby, the only one that was cut. It was cut into the shape of a lightning bolt. "That looks like the Element of Loyalty…" said Sun. "It's not," said Rainbow Dash, examining the gem, "From personal experience." "The Element of Protection," said Rising. "It goes to the pony you call Scootaloo," said Setting. "Scoots?" asked Rainbow, "She's not here!" "We know," said Rising. "But Pinkie Pie can pull things from thin air, can she not?" said Setting. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Pinkie, "I'll get… …right away!" Then she pulled Scootaloo out from behind her back, then she tapped a hoof on the young mare's head to wake her. "Where'd you get her?" asked Winter. "I took her out of my sentence! See, up there?" said Pinkie, pointing somewhere vaguely upward. "Regardless," said Rainbow, "Scoots?" "Yeah?" asked Scootaloo. "Yours," said Sun, giving Scootaloo the gem. "What's this for?" asked Scootaloo, confused.

"The Element of Protection," Rising reiterated. "It's for you," said Setting. "Now to pour your magic into these gems," said Rising. "Everypony get ready," said Setting. "Star Sparkle?" asked Rising. "Cast the spell to transfer emotions to magic, as we requested," said Setting. "Everypony hold your gems," said Star, nodding, "And think of the time you most embraced your element." Then she cast her spell, Star herself thought of the many, many times she helped her friends organize everything from their rooms to their lives. Star closed her eyes and smiled, the spell happened rather effortlessly regardless of the fact that she, along with everypony else, was floating.

When the spell was finished, Scootaloo opened her eyes first. "Hey!" a pegasus with a bright green coat and a white mane by the name of Mountain Air exclaimed when she looked over, "Nice lookin' necklace!" "Thanks," said Scootaloo, looking down at her necklace. Unlike the main 6 Elements, these necklaces' gems were all inlaid in silver instead of gold. "Look at mine, look at mine!" exclaimed Bubble. "That's what I said when I first got my Element!" said Pinkie. "I know," said Bubble. "Why, you read the transcript?" asked Pinkie. Bubble nodded and said, "Yesserooni!" Sun shrugged and looked over at Sunset's. It was in the shape of her cutie mark, the tennis racket with the aura around the handle. The only difference was that it was completely comprised of different shades of chocolaty brown. "Yours looks so pretty!" exclaimed Sun, "Not as pretty as you, but who can top that?" "Yours looks gorgeous too," said Sunset with a smile, "And you're too generous with your compliments." "Is it weird to have two Elements, Sun?" asked Pinkie. "Not really," said Sun, "The other one wasn't mine anyways. It was Rarity's. I just… borrowed it for a while." "Well put," said Rarity, she'd put on her Element a little while back. So had Pinkie and Rainbow, for that matter.

Everypony's gems had shaped into more basic versions of their cutie marks, the colors being the colors of the gems. "There are 19 Elements now," said Moon Pool, counting them up. "That means there's a ton more power in them," said Sunset, "That's because there are more values represented." "Can we defeat an alicorn with an alicorn amulet on with this?" asked Morning. "I think we can," said Winter. "Your Element was rightly chosen," said Moon, "The word 'Hope' seems to exemplify your best traits quite well." "Thanks," said Winter. "Probably," said Star, "If you want my opinion. If we try, that is." "Do we have any other options?" asked Sunset rhetorically, "No? Then let's do this!" "I've got an idea," said Bubble, "Trust me. It's gonna be SWEET!"

"So, what's the song?" asked Pinkie. "Something called 'We're Not Gonna Take It'!" exclaimed Bubble. "What is that?" asked Rarity, "I don't think I've ever heard of a song like that… which symphony?" "It's not a symphony, silly filly!" exclaimed Pinkie, "I know the song!" She cleared her throat and screamed, "We're not gonna take it! No, we ain't gonna take it! We're not gonna take it anymore!" Pinkie perfectly matched the pitch.

"I've got one question, though…" said Rainbow, "Who's gonna be the Element of Magic?" "I say it should be Star," said Whirlwind. Almost everypony nodded. "Can you even hold two Elements?" asked Bubble. "Yep!" exclaimed Whirlwind. "I've read about the times that Celestia has held all 6 Elements at once," said Star. "But she's an alicorn!" exclaimed Pinkie. "And I'm not trying to hold all six," said Star, "Only 2." "Great idea!"

"I've got some great choreography!" exclaimed Bubble. "Okay, I'll sing!" exclaimed Pinkie.

"We're not gonna take it," sang Pinkie loudly, Bubble got up on her back hooves and put one hoof on her hip, the other pointing into the sky. "No, we ain't gonna take it!" Pinkie continued, Bubble stamped on the ground and put her forehooves out to the sides, shaking her head. "We're not gonna take it, _anymore_!" Pinkie exclaimed. On the first part she got back into the first position, then she spun around on one hoof.

"We've got the right to choose, and," sang Pinkie, "There ain't no way we'll lose it!" "On this part we're all going to come in," announced Bubble as Pinkie continued, slightly softer so Bubble could talk, "This is our life, this is our song! We'll fight the powers that be, just; don't pick our destiny, cause; you don't know us, you don't belong!" "We're not gonna take it!" everypony joined in to sing, doing the movements. "Exactly! Do that!" exclaimed Bubble. "No, we ain't gonna take it!" everypony (Rarity included!) continued, "We're not gonna take it, ANYMORE!"

Bubble and Pinkie sang the next verse: "Oh, you're so condescending! Your goal is never-ending! We don't want _nothing_; not a thing from you!" They motioned vigorously for everypony to join, and they sang the chorus, doing the motions that went with it. "Then we're gonna crowd around Nightmare and you pegasi will sing real low," said Bubble, then she demonstrated, "Whoa… Whoa…" "Then me and Bubble are gonna sing this part and after each sentence everypony else scream, 'Yeah!'. Then when I motion like this," Pinkie said, immediately shooting one hoof into the air, "We're gonna do the chorus again!"

"And on this very chorus," said Bubble, "Can you do your sonic rainboom, Rainbow Dash? You know, right before it?" "How big is the throne room?" asked Rainbow. "Big enough," said Sun. "And we repeat the chorus twice!" exclaimed Bubble. "I know this pony named Six Strings that plays an impressive guitar," said Pinkie, "So that should take care of the guitar solo." "I'm right here," said Six Strings, moving out of the crowd. He was a dark orange stallion with a short, scruffy black mane and an electric guitar for a cutie mark. "Great!" exclaimed Pinkie, "Can you do it for us?" "Absolutely-tootly!" he exclaimed, apparently having known Pinkie for a while. "He played in your 'Rockin' Ponypalooza Party', didn't he?" asked Bubble. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Pinkie.

"Now we just need somepony to do the drums," said Bubble. In response Pinkie tapped out the beat to the song with her hooves. "Oh yeah!" said Bubble. "We need something to signify ourselves," said Sun, "There's the Sun and the Moon, but we're just sort of caught in between." "In the ancient legends, there were three alicorn goddesses," said Star, "Sundrops, goddess of the sun and weather, Moondancer, goddess of the moon and stars, and Aurora, goddess of the earth and of rainbows. There are Sun and Moon, but I think we're basically Aurora. Unappreciated but beautiful. And now we won't take it anymore." "I'll start by making us all armor just like Rainbow Dash's!" exclaimed Rarity, ecstatic at the opportunity. "Great idea!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

In a week or so, Rarity had all the armor finished. It was made of alluminite, inlaid with gems and it looked exactly like Rainbow Dash's. Well, for the exception of the cutie mark. Each had the cutie mark on the flank of the pony who would be wearing it. After they all donned their armor, they all finally looked like one group. And nopony was happier about that than Star. Organization, remember? Regardless, they began the long march to Canterlot.


	32. We're Not Gonna Take It

When they arrived at Canterlot, it was 3 days later but they'd stopped frequently and as such were quite well rested. They stomped together through all of Canterlot, getting some shocked looks. Each had a determined look, and the Elements were at the front. On the way they'd stopped by Ponyville and collected Applejack and Fluttershy. The six main Element Users at the front, followed by the other 13 Elements, followed by the hundreds, no, thousands, of other ponies from both sides, walked firmly up to Canterlot Castle.

"Wait here," said Pinkie to the army. Around the corner and a block away was the entrance to Canterlot Castle, but they could tell Nightmare was back because that the castle was heavily guarded. Pinkie and Bubble rounded the corner and walked up. "We request an audience with the Queen, Nightmare Moon," said Pinkie. "Very well," said the guard, "She will see you two shortly. Five minutes." "Of course," said Bubble, bowing while Pinkie did so as well. Then they trotted back and rounded the corner. "Five minutes," said Bubble, quietly as so the guards wouldn't hear her. The rest of the army passed it down. "I took out those guards, they should be asleep any minute now," said Star, blowing out her horn as it smoked a little.

Bubble looked around the corner and saw the guards were asleep. They told this to the others. "It would have been more awesome if you'd incinerated them, though," said Rainbow. Then Pinkie and Bubble bounced into the throne room. "What are you doing here?" asked Nightmare when they arrived. "We requested an audience, the guards said five minutes, we waited five minutes!" exclaimed Bubble, her and Pinkie bowing. Just then, though, Pinkie started drumming out the beat.

"What did you come to see me about?" asked Nightmare, seemingly unaware of the hoof-drumming on the floor. "This," said Pinkie. "We're not gonna take it!" sang Bubble as Six Strings started up his guitar from right beside the throne. They did the movements that went with it. "No, we ain't gonna take it!" they continued together, "We're not gonna take it… ANYMORE!"

Right as they started the first verse everypony stormed in, trotting as their hooves tapped out the beat. The thousands of ponies streamed into the hall as Pinkie and Bubble, along with the other Elements once they arrived and moved to the front, "We've got the right to choose and, there ain't no way we'll lose it, this is our life, this is our song!" Then everypony else joined in for, "We'll fight the powers that be just, don't pick our destiny cause, you don't know us, you don't belong!" Then everypony was inside the throne room, wearing their rainbow colored armor, doing the movements for it, as they started the chorus.

"We're not gonna take it!

No, we ain't gonna take it!

We're not gonna take it…

Anymore!"

The Element Users, 18 of them, stepped out and pointed at Nightmare, singing, "Oh, you're so condescending! Your goal is never ending! We don't want _nothing_, not a thing from you!" At the end of the last word, Rainbow Dash flew in and performed her sonic rainboom, flying right up to Nightmare and getting all up in her face, singing, "We're not gonna take it! No, we ain't gonna take it! We're not gonna take it…"

Meanwhile, everypony else was trotting to the beat, trotting up to Nightmare. Six Strings included as he didn't even play while Rainbow was singing. Then at the last word, everypony joined for, "ANYMORE!" Then they did the chorus again, every single pony in the room joined (except Nightmare, she was confused, overwhelmed and, though she would never admit it, scared).

Then the pegasi sang their "Whoa… Whoa…" and Pinkie and Bubble sang, "We're right!" Everypony screamed, "Yeah!" "We're free!" "Yeah!" "We'll fight!" "Yeah! "You'll see…" "Oh-whoa, we're not gonna take it! No, we ain't gonna take it! We're not gonna take it ANYMORE!" everypony exclaimed at once, nopony was more than twenty feet from Nightmare and she was cowering into her seat. The guards were astounded (reasonably so) but halfway through the final chorus most of them figured, "What the heck?" and sang with them.

At the end of the song Nightmare asked frantically, "What do you want?!" "Taking off that amulet would be a good start," said Sun. "You want it? Take it!" Nightmare exclaimed, her red eyes flickering as she turned back to normal and her aura changing from red to its usual turquoise as she levitated it over and tossed it across the room. "Ugh…" said Nightmare, "What just happened?" Her pupils went very small when she realized. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, "I'm… so sorry…" "You're not responsible for it," said Morning, "It's that amulet." Sun, who'd just finished zipping around the throne room, landed and asked, "About that amulet… anypony know where it is?"

"Stop right there," said Rainbow Dash, landing in front of a guard who was carrying the amulet in his mouth. "Hmm?" asked the guard through his teeth, confused and scared as he turned around. "Give it," said Rainbow. He spit out the amulet and ran off immediately, and Rainbow zipped back inside to give the amulet to somepony who would protect it properly. "I have the amulet," Rainbow said once she landed, right in front of Nightmare, "Some guard tried to run off with it." "Oh!" exclaimed Nightmare, "I have something to do. I just remembered it. One second." She cast a teleportation spell, and immediately Zecora appeared next to her. "You may want this back," said Rainbow, holding out the amulet. Zecora nodded, still recovering from her daze but taking the amulet. Then she walked out. "I assume she's going back to her house to get her affairs in order," said Rainbow. "I have one last thing that I have to do," said Nightmare.

"What's that?" asked Sun.

"I have to get the Princesses back," said Nightmare

"You said you didn't want to do that!" exclaimed Sunset.

"I know," Nightmare sighed, "But it has to be done."

"The banishment spell," said Nightmare, "It's easy to do, easier to undo, and near impossible to break. They're gonna come right back to the place I banished them from, unless I tell the spell otherwise. I'm going to get them all to come here." "You're really going to do this?" asked Moon. "She can do what she wants," said Morning. Nightmare nodded and started casting her spell. She closed her eyes and a force field came out of nowhere and surrounded Nightmare, then nopony could see anything for a while. When they finally were able to see again, Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence were there. In a few moments, another spell was cast and Shining Armor was then there as well. In his normal state, too. Cadence and Shining saw each other for the first time in months and ran to each other. Celestia and Luna shared a sisterly hug, then Twilight joined in the hug.

And there wasn't a single pony in the whole throne room who wasn't smiling at that moment. However, right at that moment, as Nightmare cowered shyly, time just seemed to stop. Everypony looked at Nightmare. She stared at the ground. An unspeakable horror rushed through the room as Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence each remembered what had happened so many months ago. "I…" started Nightmare. Then, the last pony that anypony would expect to stand up at a time like this, in front of so many ponies, and be the first to break the silence was also the first pony to speak:

Morning Ice.

She took a gasp and said in an almost Pinkie-like manner in one breath, "Nightmare is actually not a bad pony but she got coaxed into putting on the Alicorn Amulet and she didn't know what it was and put it on and we ended up with a three-week night but then we all helped to create 13 new Elements of Harmony and Star Sparkle held two Elements and we joined the Solar and Lunar ponies into one group which we call the Aurora and we got Nightmare to take the amulet off, upon which she decided to set everything right again." "And that's pretty much the reason that you ponies are back here," said Moon, not surprised the slightest. "That's… a lot to take in…" said Celestia. "I agree, sister," said Luna. "I don't know about you," said Twilight, "But I understood it fine."

"I remember how Trixie was when she had the Alicorn Amulet on," said Twilight, "And I believe that Nightmare is not a bad pony, per say, she was simply ignorant on that specific topic. Actually, I think that these 19 ponies deserve a medal." Twilight pointed to the 19 Element Users. "Your crown, your majesty…" said Star, mock-bowing and levitating Twilight's crown and Element of Harmony back to her. "Star," said Twilight, "Just call me Twilight." "I know," said Star with a giggle, "_Twilight_." They shared a hug as they giggled together. "Don't leave us out!" exclaimed Pinkie, all 5 of Twilight's friends joining the hug.


	33. The Real Ending

About a month later, Pinkie Pie had thrown a 'We Saved Equestria and Created 13 New Elements of Harmony' party about two days after the Princesses returned and now it was time for Sun Rider and Moon Pool's 14th birthday. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, Sun Rider, happy birthday to you!" sang the ponies who'd been on the Solar side, inclusive of Celestia and Twilight. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Moon Pool, happy birthday to you!" sang the entire Lunar side, inclusive of Luna and Cadence and Shining Armor. They tried to cram everypony into Sugarcube corner, failed, and had an outdoor party including all of Ponyville. Pinkie, with the help of Bubble, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Sun and Moon, had put up streamers on the clouds. Pinkie's entire family had shown up and used some donated rocks to hold down bunches of balloons. Pinkie herself floated around town in Twilight's hot air balloon and intermittently announced coverage of a night-flame-ball tournament, it was a game Sun had suggested in which she play tennis against different ponies in a dark room with a flaming ball. Sun and Sunset nearly tied, but Sun won by a single point.

Pinkie also announced live coverage of an ice skating tournament which she really wished that she could have been in. Moon had suggested that. She competed against everypony else, including Morning Ice, and actually the two tied. The judges included Pinkie, for good reason. Pinkie was one of the best skaters in all of Equestria, after all, with her triple axel. Bubble begged so much for her that Pinkie was finally allowed to do her 7-minute long program including her triple axel (as an exhibition, of course, since there was nopony to compete against). Everypony cheered her on.

Then, in something suggested by Discord, no less, (he was invited by Fluttershy) Sun tried to skate and Moon tried to play tennis. Everypony who watched ended up laughing, Discord most of all. Sun fell on her face and Moon got hit with the ball. But they, too, got up laughing and shook it off. Then Sun turned the tables and played a tennis match against Discord, she won. Then Moon did the same and did a skating competition against Discord. She won. "Well, I guess I've been beat," said Discord, turning into a makeup artist and creating a few fake bruises. Then he changed back, made everything disappear and flew up into the air. He turned a cloud into a pink cotton candy cloud and it started raining chocolate milk. "_Discord?!_" shouted Fluttershy. "Sorry," he said, changing it back.

"I can make us a dance floor!" exclaimed Discord, snapping his fingers as a half a square acre flattened and turned checkerboard, a disco ball appeared and floated over the dance floor. "There we go," said Fluttershy, "Nice job." "Let's get this party started!" exclaimed a pony commonly called DJ Pon3. She rolled in her speakers and started playing several songs rich in what she called "WUBS". A ton of ponies immediately started dancing and a few ponies had a 'dance-off'. Guess who won?

The answer is Discord.

Don't ask me why.

Then everypony walked over to a humungous pile of gifts from everypony in the army, a.k.a. most of the ponies in Equestria. Sun and Moon sat on opposite sides of the pile and thanked every single pony as they opened their gifts. Pinkie gave them a package of balloons in colors they didn't even know the names of, Bubble gave them each a whole ton of streamers. "For your own party-planning and stuff!" they exclaimed in unison. Winter Pearl gave them each a necklace with their cutie marks inlaid in gold with pearl chains. "The least I could do," she said. Rising and Setting lugged in a huge quartz block and set it in front of them. "We dug this up while looking for the Element gems," said Rising. "We thought you should have it," said Setting.

Rarity was the next to come up to give her gifts. She levitated the two boxes off the top of the pile and over to the two twin sisters. She walked up to Moon as she opened her gift. It was a set of bright white skates, inlaid in gems of all sorts, cut in diamond shapes. Then she walked over to Sun as she opened her gift. A tennis racket, with a bright red rim inlaid in rubies and other gems. "You're the Element of Generosity for a reason, I see," said Sun. Rarity simply nodded and smiled.

At the ending of the gift-giving process, only two ponies were left. However there were no gifts left in the pile. They'd already gotten gifts from the Princesses: Twilight had given a large box full of volumes 1-34 of her favorite fiction series, Cadence had given several large crystal hair clips from the Crystal Empire, Celestia had given them each a gown and Luna had given a set of armor. The two who were left? Sunset and Morning.

"We have different gifts for you," said Sunset. "Pinkie?" asked Morning. "Oh… yeah!" exclaimed Pinkie, pulling out two small boxes. Morning and Sunset levitated over the boxes and opened them, each revealing a golden ring encrusted in diamonds. Already knowing the question, Sun answered, "Just promise me one thing, Sunset." "Yes?" asked Sunset. "We will NOT have a normal wedding." "Done!" exclaimed an ecstatic Sunset. "I guess we're going to have the first double wedding in Equestrian history!" exclaimed Moon.

"But, Sun?" asked Sunset, "The Championships are tomorrow!" "True," said Sun, "But I can do that again next year." "Let the wedding planning commence!" exclaimed Rarity.

"By 'not normal', you mean…" started Sunset. "Moon and I are gonna rainboom across the castle!" exclaimed Sun. "I'm a fan of that," said Moon. "Can you be in charge of the food, Applejack?" asked Morning. "Ah would be honored," said Applejack. "Don't forget me!" exclaimed Pinkie. "You'll be in charge of the _desserts_, Pinkie," said Sunset. "Yippee!" exclaimed Pinkie. "One more thing to do:" said Sun, "Rainbow Dash? Can you be my best mare?" "I… uh…" stuttered Rainbow, "Absolutely!"

Two days later, in Canterlot Castle, the wedding was held. There were rainbow colored streamers and balloons everywhere, most of Equestria was invited (and the rest probably showed up anyway), and the plans were finished. Morning and Sunset stood at the front of the room at the start, white veils over their eyes. Then a bunch of royal trumpeters trumpeted and Moon, Sun and Rainbow flew in. Rainbow shouted "NOW!" and they all rainboomed at the same instant. Then they went into a series of barrel rolls and loops and landed. All through the entire show, there were a stream of "ooh" and "ah" replies from everypony there.

Pinkie, hovering three feet above the ground by a spectrum of balloons, started the ceremony. If you could even call it that. "Do you, Sunset Sky, take Sun Rider to be your awesomely wedded wife?!" announced Pinkie as if it was game coverage. "Absolutely-tootly!" exclaimed Sunset. "And do you, Sun Rider, take Sunset to be your superultraepicawesomazingly wedded wife?" asked Pinkie. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Sun.

"Do you, Moon Pool, take Morning Ice to be your radically wedded wife?" asked Pinkie. "Yesserooni!" exclaimed Moon. "And do you, Morning Ice, take Moon to be your epically wedded wife?" Pinkie asked happily. "Um… yes," said Morning shyly. Sun and Sunset kissed first, and Pinkie exclaimed, "She shoots… she scores!" Then Pinkie continued, "She's going for a pass, this could win the game, folks!" Moon rolled her eyes and muttered, "Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie…" Morning sighed and said quietly, "Come here, you." Then they kissed. "And by the powers vested in me by my sugar rush and a ton of cake," said Pinkie, "I now pronounce you… married! Dashie? The rings?" Rainbow brought over a tennis racket with two rings on it, sliding the rings onto Sunset's horn and Sun's wing. Then she zipped over and came back with a skate blade (unattached from the boot) with two rings on it. She slid those onto Morning's horn and Moon's wing.

Outside, Celestia had magically created an ice rink. Cadence had created a tennis court. Discord created a dance floor. And everypony danced like Twilight in rainbow colored gowns and suits and stuck-out tongues. Moon and Morning skated to their hearts' content, and at one point Moon lifted Morning up in the air for the first-ever pairs move performed in Equestria, ever. The early fall evening grew darker but Luna brought out the moon and the stars to illuminate the sky. "I call this the most awesome wedding ever!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she, along with Sun and Moon, did their sonic booms across the sky.


	34. Epilogue - Check That

~10 years later, Canterlot Ice Rink, Canterlot

"You ready, Morning?" asked Moon. "Yeah," said Morning with a huge grin. They were in their matching skating dresses for their pairs routine. "I heard that we're gonna be the only mare-mare team this year," said Morning. "Then we'll have to work real hard to beat 'em," said Moon. Morning nodded. They were waiting for their warm-up ice. "We'll be competing against Pinkie and Pokey, you know," said Morning. Moon nodded. Pinkie had gotten her friend into figure skating a few years back and now they did pairs skating. "Hey, everypony!" exclaimed Pinkie, bouncing up to them after coming through the door to the rink. Pokey came in shortly after she did. "Hi, Pinkie!" exclaimed Morning. "Good luck, you two," said Pokey. "You too," said Moon. "WARM-UP ICE FOR SENIOR PAIRS TEAMS BEGINS NOW!" the announcer said. Everypony skated on and began their warm-up.

Everything was going fine until something happened on the Platter Lift (where one pony lifts the other by the hips above their head). It just wasn't balanced right. "What should I be doing differently?" asked Morning. "I don't know," said Moon. Their coach couldn't make it to the competition's practice ice, although she'd be there to put them out later. They looked up into the stands and saw Twilight reading a book, not exactly an unusual occurrence. Then, though, the Princess teleported down to near the ice door and beckoned for Moon and Morning to come over. "What is it, Twilight?" asked Moon. "I've been reading," said Twilight. This wouldn't have been something to talk about, but she showed the cover to the two and they realized what she was doing now. "I know I'm no skating coach, but read this section. It might help," said Twilight. Morning read that specific section and said, "Oh!" She beckoned for Moon to come with her and said as they skated off, "Come on, let's do the lift again. I think I know what to do." Twilight smiled and teleported back up to her place in the stands.

"SKATERS, YOUR WARM-UP HAS ENDED. PLEASE LEAVE THE ICE," the announcer said. Moon and Morning, along with all the other skaters, got off, breathless but excited. Moon and Morning were last, so they got to watch the other skate. Just then, their coach, a white unicorn with a short, black, spiky mane named Rule Book, walked in the door. "Sorry I couldn't be here earlier," said Rule, "I was caught in traffic." "Lots of pegasus traffic in the air these days, competitions and such," said Morning sympathetically. Rule simply nodded. "You two warmed up?" asked Rule, "Any stumbles?" "No," Moon lied with a smile, winking at Twilight, "No problems."

"NOW, COMING ALL THE WAY FROM FILLYDELPHIA," the announcer said, "PLEASE WELCOME MOON POOL AND MORNING ICE!" The two skated on with a few well-wishes from their coach and hit their starting position. Although they knew their music, it was always so much fun to hear it again. It was agreed upon by Moon and Morning, it was the same song Morning had skated to when Moon first met her: "Halleluiah". It was much longer, but it still had the same elements in it. Everypony cheered (possibly because Princess Twilight was cheering) as they skated out, then there was a dead silence right before the music started.

Everything was perfect and pristine, even the Lasso Lift, the hardest element in the program. After they finished and the last note played, Moon twirled Morning around and they curtsied to both the judges on one long side of the ice and the audience on the other. Then they got off. "Nice job," said Rule, giving them each their jackets. Then they put on their hardguards (skate covers that let the skates onto places that normally would harm the blades) and walked up into the stands to sit and wait and watch other events until their results were posted.

About a half an hour later, Rule Book came up to them and said, "Your results are up, come with me." She couldn't appear to stop smiling. They walked over to a long hallway where results were posted on the wall. They looked around to find their results and tried to contain their excitement when they saw. "We won!" Moon whisper-shouted. Morning nodded, keeping her composure well, "We did good."

"Congrats!" exclaimed a voice through the crowd. "Sun?" asked Moon. "Yep!" exclaimed Sun, walking up to her sister, "Great job! Sunset wanted to come congratulate you, too." "Hey," said Sunset, "Great job!" "You did great!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "We got second. Nice job, you two!" "We all qualified for worlds," said Moon, "You ponies ready to go up against griffons? I hear their throw jumps are real good…" "We're just going to have to work harder, then," said Morning with determination. "Yeah…" said Moon.

"Hey!" exclaimed Bubble, jumping out of a locker. "Where… how…" stuttered Sunset. "Where Pinkie goes, I go!" exclaimed Bubble, "You two did great!" "Thanks, Bubble," said Moon.

"About the story, though," said Pinkie, "Do you think there's gonna be another sequel?" "I hope so!" exclaimed Bubble. "I think the author's sick of this, though," said Pinkie. "Aw…" said Bubble, "_**BUT I WANTED A SEQUEL!**_"


End file.
